The Wild Story
by what-if-joana
Summary: Luke joins Lorelai on her Wild trip in A Year In The Life. While being on the trail, they resolve their issues by talking it all out - hopefully. / JavaJunkies Revival AU for Fall.
1. Unbelievable

**Chapter 1: Unbelievable**

Luke couldn't believe it. Lorelai Gilmore was bound to go on a hiking trip. It sounded like a joke to him; a very bad one with an even worse punch line. Lorelai Gilmore wanted to go on a hiking trip. She had come up with the idea by herself, and no Hello Kitty booth was involved. Luke couldn't believe it. The longer he thought about it, the less he could actually wrap his head around this idea.

Confusion was not the only thing he felt while he comprehended the fact that Lorelai would spend three weeks in the wild. He also felt anger inside him. Lorelai Gilmore, finally, decided to do something outdoorsy, something Luke would enjoy, but she decided to do it without him.

In the past, Luke had never brought up going camping or fishing with her because Luke knew that was something Lorelai did not enjoy. It was something she wouldn't consider doing even though she cared about him.

However, suddenly out of the blue, Lorelai Gilmore had actually made the decision to go on a long hike and did not even consider that this would be something Luke would enjoy too. It could have been something they could have shared with each other like a shared interest; a shared experience.

That though was not Lorelai's intention, not part of her plan. Lorelai Gilmore was stubborn as hell and what was set on her mind would be done as she pleased. No room for discussion. Lorelai had decided and she would go through with it.

Ever since she had told Luke about her plan in the summer, she was wrapped up in preparations for her trip and they hardly talked about the fact that she would be gone for three weeks. She had told him that night in the kitchen and ever since they just didn't talk about her hike. She was preparing and whenever he dared to give his advice she answered dismissively, asking him to let her do it on her own because this was something she had to do on her own.

Luke got frustrated with her behavior. He had spent a lot of time outdoors and knew what was important to consider when planning such a trip. He could offer her so much advice, but she would not take it, even though she was a newbie to outdoor stuff.

That fact bothered Luke a lot. He wanted her back in one piece and with her lack of knowledge, he was afraid something horrible might happen to her. He was sure she would get hurt in the process, she was clumsy at points and being alone on a deserted trail seemed like a good suicidal method for her.

Maybe this was her intention, Luke wouldn't know. All year long, Lorelai had been a big mystery to him. Ever since Richard died, Lorelai had changed and he couldn't recognize her anymore at times.

Luke also knew they had issues, big issues, which were not talked about properly. They had made up after their fall out in the dinner in summer, but a lot of the brought up issues had not been discussed. Things between them were still unresolved and by pretending they never happened both Lorelai and Luke tried to deal with them. Avoiding what was really bothering them was a strength of theirs, they were capable of leaving the real important stuff out of a conversation and instead concentrating on silly little details, which did not matter.

After their big fight in the diner, they had sort of made up that same evening, not saying too much, not even apologizing properly. Lorelai had approached him as he sat on the bed, getting ready for sleep; she was about to give a big speech Luke could tell by the deep breaths she had drawn before speaking up, "Luke-".

But he had stopped her, waving it off, "It's fine, Lorelai."

"Really?" Lorelai sounded unsure, tilting her head as she leaned against the doorpost, seeking some kind of support. Their fight in the diner had been bad and ugly.

Luke nodded in response, patting the space on the bed next to him. There was not use in arguing in his opinion. Everything was out now and they could move forward with their cards open.

Lorelai went to the bathroom to get changed, her pajamas were again the drawer Luke usually put them, but she didn't comment on it. Luke could hear some water sounds coming from the bathroom, she was probably getting rid of the awful day by washing her face and rinsing of the sour feeling she had been feeling ever since. He had done the same before.

It took Lorelai longer than Luke had expected, that's why he decided to settle into bed and turn the light off. He stayed on his side, facing towards the windows. He was not sure if Lorelai wanted him to settle in their usual sleeping position, with him facing towards her. It felt wrong to him; he never slept on his right, it felt weird, everything was out of place.

She joined him a little later in bed, sighing deeply when she settled under the sheets too. By the pulling he could feel on the blanket, he knew she was getting ready to sleep on her left, facing away from him, which was nothing unusual; it was her preferred sleeping position. After some more stirring on her part, she sighed again and asked into the dark, checking if he was still awake, "Hey Luke?"

For a moment, Luke debated whether he should answer her or not, but he was not in the mood to hold a grudge. It was not his intention to leave things hanging. "Yeah?"

"Thanks for taking care of the inn. I appreciate it." She spoke softly, the words just above a whisper, even though Luke did not know why she used that voice. There was no one she would be disturbing if she used her normal voice.

"No problem."

"And, Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"I stopped going to therapy."

"I know." He paused. "Your therapist is involved with that musical."

"Yes."

If she was taking a step towards him, Luke understood he had to make an effort too. He said, "Lorelai?"

"Yeah?"

"I won't expand my dinner."

"I know."

"I just-"

He was about to explain it to her, but Lorelai cut him short by saying, "I know, Luke. It's nothing you would want."

"Right."

"So…" She sounded unsure, waiting for him to say more, but he didn't know anything else. The issues had been discussed for now; they could come back to them later, at a better time. She understood his silence and said, "Good night."

"Good night."

However, the better times to discuss those issues never came by. Ever since their issues had not been addressed. Both of them acted like nothing was off, that nothing was standing between them, but clearly something was off between them, clearly, something was standing between them. That evening when Lorelai had announced she would go and do "Wild", Luke knew for sure that something between was not right at all.

Maybe it could no longer be fixed. Maybe he had missed his chance. Maybe this was the beginning of the end. Maybe. He was not sure anymore. He didn't understand her actions anymore. He couldn't understand where this idea was coming from. He couldn't believe it.

Yet, it was no surprise for Luke to find her sitting on the couch with her laptop on her lap. The sadness sticker on it was matching her face expression, which could be found so often on Lorelai's face nowadays. Luke noticed she was surfing on a hiking equipment shop's website again, looking at tents.

She flashed him a quick smile when she noticed he had entered the living room, but the smile didn't reach her eyes. It was not genuine. No words left her lips. Instead, she kept her thoughts to herself and that drove Luke crazy. She used to start talking whenever he came home, whenever he was in hearing distance, but nowadays, Luke had to prompt her to start a conversation. "What you're doing?"

"Oh, just some research for the trip, you know." She had her eyes fixated on the screen, clicking on random links.

"Anything you need advice on? A second pair of eyes to look at?" Luke suggested, coming closer to the couch, so he could actually tell what she was looking at.

"Nah, the descriptions on the website are really good. I'll manage." She lifted her head a moment, only to look at the website again a second later.

"Yeah, but these descriptions are there to make you buy it," Luke reminded her. He really wanted to be involved in this. He was throwing her a bone, but she didn't take it.

"I want to buy something, so…" She left the rest of the sentence hanging in the air as if that was explanation enough.

"But you can't trust those descriptions. They are not exactly truthful." He tried one last time to make her talk to him, but yet again she was acting dismissive, not considering him.

"I check the reviews too, relax. I know how to shop."

"Not for outdoor stuff," Luke muttered under his breath. There was no sense in even trying; she had averted another of his attempts to be included in her plans.

"What was that?"

"Nothing," Luke dismissively said, turning to leave for the kitchen to prepare dinner for himself and Paul-Anka. He would have to get used to make dinner for just the two of them; Lorelai would be gone soon. Right now, he wasn't even sure if Lorelai would join them for dinner. Luke decided he would make more, just in case Lorelai hadn't eaten yet.

He just had taken the food out of the fridge, which he had inspected for a few moments, when Lorelai stepped up behind him, leaning against the stove. She asked, "Do you have a problem?"

"No, I don't" Luke walked to the other side of the kitchen toward the sink, washing whatever vegetable he had grabbed out of the fridge.

"It doesn't seem like it."

"I don't," Luke repeated. "And if you can't believe me, then you're the one with a problem."

Lorelai scoffed. "So, you don't have a problem with my trip?"

"Me? No, why would I? You can do whatever you want," he said defensively. Of course, he had a problem with her trip, but he would not tell her that as directly. He could not, her mind was set, and he knew that. He would not be able to talk her out of it.

"Yes, I can." Lorelai crossed her arms in front of her, waiting for him to say more, which he eventually did.

"Right," Luke answered and dragged the conversation in a different direction than Lorelai was probably expecting. "So, will you have dinner?"

"Please, yeah." Lorelai looked at the vegetable in Luke's hands, and added, "But I'm not eating that."

"It's a broccoli. You've eaten that before," he argued.

"Still. Today, I won't." Her voice was harsh, harsher than some light banter about vegetables took place in this kitchen on a regular basis.

Luke decided to go a different route for their healthy-versus-unhealthy-lifestyle-debate. Instead of telling her she would die young if she didn't pay attention to her eating habits, he said, "Avoid anything healthy, I couldn't care less."

"I'm going on a hiking trip," Lorelai stated. "Please enlighten me how this is not healthy."

"Fine, don't eat it." He hadn't expected her to in the first place.

"You so not have a problem with my trip."

Luke turned around to answer when he saw her rolling her eyes, he decided to give in and confess his problems with her trip. They had tiptoed around each other for far too long. It was time. "Actually, I do."

"I knew it," Lorelai exclaimed. Her voice was full of reproach. It seemed like she had been waiting for this kind of admission. "But, why, Luke? Why? I'll be gone for three weeks. What, you're going to miss me? I'm still here and you don't make the impression you care a whole lot. It won't make a difference."

Luke closed his eyes for a moment what she said was not true. He had to clarify. He would miss her, of course, he had grown to her presence. He could not imagine a world without her. Her accusations were so wrong, so absolutely wrong, he enlightened her, "We've never been apart that long."

"What?" She frowned. "That's not true. We sure have."

"Not since we got back together."

Lorelai's frown deepened. "But what about that time I went to see Rory?"

"That was two weeks."

"And April moving into college?"

"Ten days."

"Huh." She paused, clearly stunned by that revelation. "Interesting."

"It's the longest we've been apart since we got back together," Luke repeated, so that fact could sink in. It had astounded him as well when he realized that.

"And that is what this is all about?" Lorelai stepped closer, her arms were not longer crossed in front of her chest, and her voice had softened.

"It's not." Luke narrowed his head. He had to stop her from treating him like a puppy, who would be separated from his mother for the first time. It was not about them being separated for the longest time ever since they got back together. Of course, he was upset about that too, but it was not his main concern.

"Well?" Lorelai prompted him, her voice was low, but Luke remained silent. "You have to tell me, so we can discuss it. I can't read your mind. Unfortunately. It would make it a lot easier if I had a Luke-mind-reader at my hands, but I don't have one."

"I wouldn't mind a Lorelai-mind-reader either." Luke lifted his head, a smirk on his face.

"Well, since we don't have our fancy mind-readers at the moment, care to share your thoughts?" she prompted him.

Luke hesitated, debating how and what to say. Choosing the right words to make his concern clear was not easy. He tried saying it as straightforward as he could. "I don't get you."

Lorelai's mouth dropped open, but she recovered quickly, saying, "OK. It's out now. Am I allowed to ask a question?" He nodded. "Why? What is there for you not to get about me?"

"You're doing a hiking trip," Luke answered. He waited for a Lorelai to realize how crazy it sounded, but again she didn't.

"Not that conversation all over again." Lorelai sighed.

"You of all people," Luke exclaimed, throwing his arms in the air in his astonishment.

"Luke, we already had this discussion. In exactly this room. Can you remember? If we both move a little to our rights we'll even be standing in the same spot."

She didn't get where he was heading with this, he clarified, heading into a ranting mode, he could feel it in his bones. "You do something I like. Camping, being outdoors. And I never pushed you to share my interests because I know it's something you wouldn't like. But now, you decide on your own to go on a hike and you don't even include me. You won't even take my advice. You won't ask me for help. You rather rely on some random people leaving reviews on the internet, which is crazy. Who does that? I should have known, the crazy attracts you but the outdoors that's a crazy that is not you. It's me, being outdoors, camping. But you won't even think about that, you're caught up in your own world, and you won't see me. You forget about me, only seeing the wild nature ahead of you."

Lorelai's face expression, her frowns, her eye rolls, her tense shoulders, her scoffs were signs of her disagreement at everything Luke said, but she didn't voice it until then, pleading him with a short "Luke!"

He didn't stop though, going on, almost like an outburst of temper. There had been worse rants he knew, but this one probably ranked in this top ten though. "It's fine. You can do whatever you want. Go on the trip, go hike the PCT. Take the time away. We both know you take the trip to get away from the mess here. You make the trip to get away from me. I get that, but I can't accept that. We've been through so much and then you just give up? I know there have been some issues here, but we can work through them. Running away won't solve them. Avoiding them won't solve them."

Luke gave Lorelai time to react to this, her answer came quick enough, short enough, so he could carry on. She said, "I know."

"You can't leave, Lorelai. You can't run away from this." Luke shook his head, making sure she understood how out of her mind she was acting about this and how unreasonable it sounded to him.

"I don't run away," she answered, her voice not as filled with emotion as Luke's, but it was close

"You do," Luke raised his voice. He was relieved they were not living in an apartment, where neighbors could easily listen to their argument.

"No, I take the time to think about the mess that is my life. I need some space between my problems and myself."

"And what if you decide that I'm not enough anymore?"

"Luke," she sighed.

"What? That's possible." That thought had been sitting inside him ever since she had decided to go on the trip. It had been sitting there for weeks now.

Lorelai looked at the ground, swallowing and took her time to answer, however, she didn't respond to his questions, addressing a different topic, "There have been some issues between us."

"I know," he said, nodding. "You've kept things from me, I've kept things from you."

"Yeah." Lorelai agreed, and suggested, "Do you want to discuss them?"

Luke wanted to discuss them, but this was neither the right time nor the right place. "Not now. Not here."

"What?" Lorelai frowned again.

His answer left her no other choice; he knew that. He elaborated on his answer, "You wanted to figure it out on the trail away from here. And that's where we're gonna discuss our issues."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You alone in nature, for three weeks, chances are high I won't see you alive again," he highlighted and then made his intentions even clearer. "I'm coming with you. You'll need me. You need someone, who knows stuff about nature."

All that he got from Lorelai in return was her head being shaken from one side to the other, over and over again. Her hair was swinging from side to side and because it was not held together in a ponytail it covered her face and the disbelief from time to time. Eventually, when her head was all shaken up, she said, "This is supposed to be my thing. I have to conquer it alone."

"Even with me there, The hike won't be like a walk in the park, trust me. It will be hard, for the both of us."

Lorelai hesitated, staring at him with her mouth open, clearly speechless for once in her life. "You're coming with me?"

"Yes, and if you're not fine with that, then you're the one with the problem," Luke repeated his words from earlier, which made Lorelai smile for a second. Luke's mind was set; he would go with Lorelai. He would fight for her. This relationship meant too much to him.

"I don't know." Lorelai struggled; Luke could tell by the way she bit her lip, her eyes drifting from one corner of the room to the other, never staying anywhere longer than a second. She searched for the right words. She seemed to fail at finding them, that's why Luke jumped in, to lay it all out for her.

"No discussion about this. I want to be involved. I want to be there. I want to be there for you. Right now, you're in the worst state to be alone. You're vulnerable. Michel's leaving. Your mother and you aren't speaking. Hell, even Rory and you aren't speaking. Sookie is gone. I'm the last one left, don't push me away."

Finally, Lorelai's eyes didn't drift from right to left anymore, but were lowered to the table, which was standing between them. Luke was not sure whether it was just the light or the perspective, but it seemed like Lorelai's eyes had filled up with tears. When she lifted her head to meet his gaze, he couldn't see them anymore. Her voice didn't sound like she was close to tears. "No, Luke, you can't just decide you come with me. This trip is something I have to do on my own. No one else included, but me and Gary."

"Gary?" Luke interjected. That name had never come up before.

"My backpack."

"Seriously?" Luke shot her a glare. Her habit of naming everything she belonged had gotten out of hand at some point.

"Joey is still in the race, I'll decide when I see it." Lorelai shrugged, not adding anything else to that topic, avoiding talking properly about Luke's idea of joining her on the trip.

"Ok, then it will be Gary, Joey, who will be my backpack. I'm calling dibs on that. You and me. And whatever name the tent will get." Luke had learned to go along with her crazy bits, even though he disapproved of them.

"Tents don't get names," Lorelai explained.

"Of course not." Luke rolled his eyes; he couldn't hold it back.

"The flashlight will."

"Makes sense."

"As much fun as this sounds, It won't happen, at least not this time around. I need to go on my own, to be by myself. I need the space," Lorelai repeated herself.

"No." Luke would not let her go. He was too scared if he let her go now, she would not come back. He had let her go once and it ended badly. She had said it was never or now, it sounded way too familiar to the ultimatum she had given him a decade ago. This time around he would act before she could do something stupid like sleeping with Christopher.

"This is not a question. I'm not asking for your permission. Just accept that. I informed you about my plans because you happen to live in the same house as me."

"I'm not just some roommate, who you inform about your whereabouts," he argued back. He couldn't believe what kind of words had left her mouth. He didn't know where they were coming from.

"According to my mother, that's exactly what we are."

"And since when does Emily Gilmore's opinion matter to you?" Lorelai listening to her mother, letting Emily Gilmore into her head was news to him. Lorelai rejected most of Emily's suggestions and disapproved of her opinions most of the time.

"That's not the point of this discussion," she yelled.

Luke knew better than to push her on this. Her therapy sessions with Emily and why she decided to carry them on was part of a discussion they would have to have on the trail if she ever accepted to let him tag along. "We're doing this together. As partners."

"We're no partners," she scoffed.

"Excuse me?" He retorted.

"We're supposed to be partners," she clarified harshly. "But in reality, we're just two people, having their own lives. Remember the deal we apparently struck? 'Cause I remember it clearly and that's not the kind of relationship I want to be in."

"Me neither!"

"Suddenly!"

"I want to work on this. I know there are issues, but we can work through them. Together. As partners. Damn it, Lorelai, I need you. You can't leave. You just can't leave." This conversation was getting frustrating for Luke. There was no way to make her understand. Out of reflex, he raised his voice, because she had spoken up too. It had turned into a yelling match.

"Luke," Lorelai sighed, apparently this was getting too much for her too.

He should cut back on his tone, but he couldn't. His relationship with Lorelai mattered so much to him. "I'm serious. We'll work on our issues on the trail. It will do us good, being away from all of this." Luke pointed around him. "Just you and me. Working on being proper partners."

"You won't leave me a choice?"

"This." He gestured between them. "You and me, was never a choice. We tried apart."

Lorelai raised an eyebrow, deeply sighing again before she said, "Wasn't the most comfortable and cheerful time of my life."

"Mine neither," answered frantically.

"But together we don't work well either," Lorelai pointed out quickly.

"I had hardly any complaints in the last nine years until recently," he shot back.

Lorelai smiled at that thought. The past nine years had been overall happy. She took a few moments, taking one deep breath after the other, letting the conversation sink in. Luke's chest rose up and down quicker too, and suddenly, Lorelai burst into laughter.

"What's so funny?" Luke didn't quite follow her train of thoughts. He didn't know what on earth could be so funny about their argument that it prompted laughter like that. It was not just a short giggle, but it sounded more like her real laughter, which came from deep down.

Eventually, when she had recovered from the laughter, she managed to say, "We're out of breath from talking."

"Was more like yelling," Luke said.

"We'll be on a hiking trail for three weeks and we get out of breath from just speaking loudly to one another."

Luke's grinned at her. "We'll better start some preparation training."

"Otherwise, we'll only be able to walk a mile a day. All these youngsters will pass us," Lorelai said.

"Even with training, they will."

"We're not that old." Lorelai wrinkled her nose.

"Compared to the twenty-somethings? The thirty-somethings? Hell, even the forty-somethings, we sure are."

"Hey! I'm a forty-something. Don't make me older than I am. I'm still in the first half of the century."

"You'll get to the other half soon enough," Luke reminded her.

"There's still time for that, mister, better check the calendar. One and a half years left for that."

"Never thought turning 50 will get an even more sensitive topic than turning 40." Luke grinned at her. He still could remember how Lorelai had acted when she was about to turn 40. With each day getting closer to that anniversary, she had been more on the edge. Luke had not decided yet if he looked forward to her 50th birthday or not. It had its perks to see Lorelai obsessing over those kinds of things though.

"Not all of us can be so cool and indifferent about their age," Lorelai argued back.

That, however, was true. Age didn't matter to Luke, he could not change it anyway. So why waste precious energy with something he would not be able to change. "I know."

"But you're right. People will pass us. We just have to keep in my mind that it's not a race and we go at our pace. We don't need to be Speedy Gonzales."

"A sombrero might be a good idea though."

"What for?" Lorelai looked at him with wide eyes. "As far as I know, the PCT doesn't require special clothing, no costumes, which is a pity in my opinion. Even though, we could come up with a team costume, to make this experience more fun if you want. I will go low on the glitter, I promise."

"I meant as a protection from the sun." Only over his dead body, he would wear a costume hiking a trail. That discussion was another, which would have to be dealt with at a different point in time.

"I see. You have your cap anyway and I'll get something too. What do you think I've been doing so far? I've done my research and have done most of my shopping. I've narrowed it down to three different kinds of hats."

Luke did not respond to that, Lorelai's shopping custom was not something he could deal with too easily. Instead, he asked, "Will you give me that book to read too?"

"What book? 'Wild'?"

"Better know what I'm getting myself into. I heard it's more pure than the movie of which I can't remember anything. I think I've seen it." He looked at her questioningly. He wasn't sure whether she had made him watch it or not.

"Because you fell asleep again," Lorelai reminded him. They have had that discussion over and over again. They never got tired of revisiting it.

"I can only repeat myself-"

"You get up at five, I know," Lorelai completed his sentence.

Luke needed some clarification. They were getting off topic. He wasn't sure if they were just joking and enjoying some bickering, when they hadn't talked about them going to the trail together properly. Lorelai had not agreed explicitly to it. He needed some reassurance. "So, we're doing this together?"

"Yes." She locked eyes with him, as she carried on speaking. "You and me on the PCT. As a team, figuring out what it really means to be partners. You said it yourself if I'm not fine with that I'm the one with the problem."

"We'll figure it out." Luke nodded, not able to move, not able to comprehend that he had managed to persuade Lorelai, not able to understand they were really doing it.

All he was capable of doing, was looking at her, staring at her, studying her. She looked outworn, exhausted, but also uncertain and wobbly. Again, Luke couldn't tell whether it was the light, which made her eyes glisten so it looked like they were filled with tears. When she whispered, her voice shaking, he knew they were actually tears in them. "We have to."

"We will," he reassured her. He would do whatever it takes to fix this between them. He won't give up on them, not ever.

"How do you know?"

"I just do." He could not know, but he had to believe.

"How?" She breathed, not even a whisper anymore.

"I can't think of anything else." Luke shrugged; he had no idea. All he knew was that he had to believe in it, no matter what.

"When did you become the optimistic one of us?" Lorelai asked, her voice still unsure, but only because she was holding back a chuckle. She seemed to have gained control over her feelings again.

"When did you become the pessimistic one?" Luke deadpanned.

"I can't pinpoint it exactly but I'd say sometimes in the course of this past year."

"It doesn't suit you," Luke told her. He didn't like the way she had become, the sad and thoughtful person. He liked her cheerful and with her head somewhere else, in her own world, amazing him with what was going on in her brain.

"I'm not too fond of that either," she confessed.

"Otherwise, you wouldn't have decided to go hiking," Luke pointed out. If the past year had not happened like that, Lorelai would have never decided to hike the PCT.

"It's not so out of the box to me like you make it sound like," she suddenly said. "I've been with an outdoorsy person for nine years now, he must have finally rubbed off on me."

"Apparently." Luke let his shoulder relax; the hard part of the conversation was over.

"There are worse habits to pick up."

"Like eating broccoli," he joked, looking over his shoulder where he had laid the broccoli down on the kitchen counter. He wanted to prepare a pasta with some chicken and a side of broccoli.

"Well, all the men in this household love that green tree-looking vegetable. I'm kinda outnumbered here."

"What will we do with the mutt anyway?" Luke asked; he had not seen Paul-Anka ever since he came home what felt like an eternity. Talking, discussing, arguing had taken up a lot of time.

"Woah, all the love you have for our dog," Lorelai said in her oh-so-dramatic-and-offended-voice, which Luke recognized as her joking voice. The voice she used around him in their bickering game, which they have grown to enjoy so much over the years.

"Your dog."

"He's ours. Always been." She clicked her tongue, making sure he understood she was annoyed with his statement, and stepped up to the table, getting a hold of the back of a chair, leaning over the table a bit.

"I didn't pick him, you did."

"That doesn't matter. He was yours too the minute you two met. Anyhow, I'll ask Babette if she can take him. And I guess Kirk would help us out too. Petal and Paul-Anka are best friends after all."

"No, not Kirk. I don't trust him with Paul-Anka." Luke was surprised Petal had survived so long, but he would never entrust him with Paul-Anka for a longer period. With all his special quirks, Paul-Anka was not an easy dog to be taken care of.

"Who's now not caring for the mutt?" Lorelai teased him. "And Kirk is fine. He's caring for Petal very good, and Lulu's there too. Don't worry."

"Still," Luke argued.

"He's even had a doggie day-care, Luke. Kirk's very much capable of doing such thing like taking care of our dog for three weeks. Have some faith in the boy."

"Alright," Luke gave in. Lorelai could wear him down so easily. "But we ask Babette first?"

"Of course. Kirk's only our backup."

Luke nodded; he didn't know what to respond to that. He was all talked out. He said more than he would usually say all day long. Everything was discussed and decided: He would join Lorelai on her trip on the PCT. Details yet needed to be discussed and an additional flight needed to be booked too, but for now, everything was said and done.

Lorelai must have felt the same, because she just looked at him, as he leaned back against the kitchen, holding onto the countertop behind him. Lorelai tucked her hair behind her ears, exhaling audibly, and then she stated, "I can't believe you persuaded me to let you join me."

"I can be very persuasive." He shrugged because he couldn't believe it himself.

"Usually only works the other way around. People won't believe the story." She smiled at him, a genuine smile, the one, which reached her eyes.

He returned that smile, it was so easy to let the corners of his mouth move up, and lock eyes with her. "They'll think I've made it up."

"Pretty sure." Lorelai nodded. "So, do you need help with dinner? You know, my stirring skills seriously have improved ever since you moved in."

The smile on his face didn't leave his face all evening long. There were still big issues between them, which needed to be discussed, but at least now they knew that they would be discussed at a later point. They were not longer living in the unknown, both of them were willing to fight for their relationship, and for more Luke could not ask.

Yet, he could not believe that in two months time they would be hiking the PCT. He would be on the trail for three with Lorelai on his side. They would sleep in a tent, would carry big backpacks, called Grey and Joey, and they would be all sweaty and sticky going through the woods and over some mountains. Not even in his wildest dreams, he would have imagined they would be doing this. It would take another day or two, or maybe a week to finally wrap his head around it. For now, he could not believe it.

* * *

 _Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think so far._

 _There will probably be an update twice a week; the story has already been finished, but it still needs some tweaks here and there. So, there's absolutely no need for anyone to stress out about a big hiatus coming or even worse this story not getting finished._

 _Also, I read Cheryl Strayed's "Wild" (haven't seen the movie though…), and I will definitely incorporate some into it. I did my research on the PCT and hiking itself too, but I'm not an outdoor person, not at all, and I have to rely on what I've read. If there is something bothering you, hit me up._

 _So, see you hopefully very soon and for now, again thanks for reading! (:_


	2. Preparations

_Hello there, I'm here with an update for you, but before you got ahead and read it, I want to take the opportunity and give you a round of thanks. The response for this story has been amazing so far, and I feel absolutely flattered. Thank you to everyone, who read this in the first place, and to everyone, who favorited or followed the story or even left a review. You really made my day, and I hope you will enjoy the next chapters too._

 _One notice and then you're good to read: This chapter is shorter than the first one; the length of chapters will vary throughout the story: there are super-long ones like the initial chapter, and shorter ones coming your way. The POV also varies between Luke and Lorelai back and forth, giving both of their perspectives some space. So, next, we will be in Lorelai's head._

 _And now, have fun with the second chapter._

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Preparations**

October came quicker than expected. The time was filled with shopping for equipment and discussions about the trail in general. Like Luke had suggested Lorelai and he didn't talk about their real issues until they were on the trail. They were busy with getting things in order for the time they would be away. All kinds of permits had to be organized, and other preparations needed to be made.

It was especially hard for Luke to leave the diner alone for three weeks. Caesar was capable of running the diner on his own, that was not the problem. However, Caesar tended to go overboard when he was left in charge. The day he was told he would be covering the diner for three weeks all by himself, Luke had returned in a bad mood and with a headache, already being concerned what crazy dishes and menu changes Caesar would come up with in the time of Luke's absence. Lorelai had assured him not to stress over it too much. The Chilaquiles Caesar had prepared when Luke had been gone a decade ago had been a big hit with the customers. And as long as the townies liked the food Caesar served them it was fine. She also reminded him Caesar would have to take down any dish from the menu as soon as Luke was back again. He smiled at that, giving his thanks to her, she knew how to handle an upset Luke in the end.

That was why she was not too surprised to find Luke and Caesar arguing over new recipe suggestions, which would revolutionize the diner when she came by sometime in September. Their fights about possible changes happened more often ever since Luke had announced he would be gone in October. Even though she caught the words peanut butter and fries, the possibility of a dish with that combination did not change her mood. The frown on her face was still there, when she sat at the counter, hopping on the chair closest to the cash register. She didn't even have to say a word when a cup was placed right in front of her, only seconds later it was filled with coffee. After she had taken a sip, Luke asked her, "What happened?"

Luke knew her well enough too. The frown on her face gave her away, but still, it was like he was reading her mind and all of that without the fancy Lorelai-mind-reader they had joked about weeks ago.

With the caffeine in her body, her shoulders were instantly relaxing. That could only do a cup of Luke's coffee to her. Her mood was not shifting yet, but talking about what bothered her might change that. "The backpacks arrived," she simply said, as if it was explanation enough to him.

When Luke narrowed his eyes at that piece of information, Lorelai knew he was debating how the arrival of their long-awaited backpacks was a bad thing. The arrival should be good news, she agreed. With them, they could finally start their trail adventure for good. They did not have any suitable backpacks in the house, they were either too small or too old. The backpacks Lorelai and Rory had used on their trip to Europe were nowhere to be found, and they were outdated anyway. The backpacking industry had come up with all sorts of improvements. Buying new ones saved them precious time going through the stuffed attic or the garage.

"That's-" Luke got interrupted by Lorelai, who put her left hand in front of his face to stop him from talking. In the meantime, she fished her phone out of her pocket. Only seconds later, Luke was no longer looking at Lorelai's hand, but at a picture of the backpacks on the phone's screen.

After studying the pictures for a couple of moments, Luke said, "They look just like on the internet."

"Can't you see it?" Lorelai whined and zoomed into the picture, so Luke could see what was wrong with what was supposed to be his backpack for the trail. "This one was supposed to be Joey, but it doesn't look like a Joey at all. It doesn't even look like a boy."

"Because it looks like a backpack," Luke deadpanned, which made Lorelai roll her eyes. It was typical of him to say things like that. It annoyed her that he wasn't taking her seriously.

"It looks like a girl," she clarified for him, and then added quickly all the reasons why this should matter to him too. "It's a catastrophe. In my imagination, it was always the three boys and me. I even came up with songs for Gary, Joey, you, and me, which we could sing along while walking."

"Hiking," Luke interjected.

"Whatever." Lorelai shook her head. "I had it all planned out, but now it's not gonna work out."

"Isn't Joey also a girl's name?"

Lorelai shot him a glare. Luke could come up with the craziest ideas. An image of a young Katie Holmes in Dawson's Creek flashed through her brain, but she pushed that thought aside, saying, "This backpack looks nothing like a Joey. Neither a boy, nor a girl."

"Then rename it." Luke shrugged. He was clearly not seeing where the problem was lying.

"Haven't you listened? I can't. It was supposed to be Gary, Joey, you, and me," she repeated that facts to him.

"What am I supposed to do now?"

Finally, Luke offered his help, and Lorelai was willingly taking it by suggesting, "Buy another one."

"Absolutely not," he answered. "You made me go through hours of looking for that one, and I won't relive that joy. This is the backpack I want. Back when we ordered it was OK with you too. That backpack fulfills all my needs."

"I know another person, who fulfills all your needs, and who will be very angry when you don't get another backpack," she said, smiling at him, knowingly. She considered herself superior with that, in the safe space, winning that argument.

However, Luke retorted, just as smug as she before, "And I know another person, who is in charge of your daily coffee fix and your food supply, who will get very angry when you make me return this backpack."

After saying so, he turned to Caesar, who had approached him yet again about some new dishes he wanted to add to the menu. As he pushed Caesar back to the kitchen, where he belonged Lorelai called in his direction, "This discussion is not over."

She finished off the coffee, taking big gulps, the caffeine lifting her spirits. She would miss drinking coffee whenever she wanted on the trail. She placed the cup back to the counter with more force than intended; it made a loud sound, which prompted Luke to peek out of the kitchen, frowning at her, and saying, "Find another name. Whatever. Name it Tiffany. Or Brittany. Or Ashley, I don't care. But I'm keeping that backpack."

That made Lorelai shoot him another glare, but it turned out this discussion was a lost cause. Returning the backpack and getting the new one Lorelai had laid eyes on would not happen, since the new backpack would not make it time. The delivery to a small town like Stars Hollow took ages, and the delivery guys so often got somewhere lost on their way, and when they tried calling the awful cell phone reception made it impossible for them to ask for directions.

Luke's smile when she told him he could keep his backpack was unbearable, but his smile faded soon enough when she reminded him of all the new dishes he would have to fight about Caesar once they would return from the hike.

Getting things in order at the diner, however, was by far easier than at the inn. Michel's leaving was getting closer and closer, and interviews had to be arranged. Hiring was not her favorite part of running her own business, she always left it to Michel, who liked torturing people as he pleased. Giving Michel a little power was dangerous; too easily he was drawn to the dark side of the force. She was always there to stop him from making people cry.

They had agreed Michel would stay until she came back from her trip. In the meantime, Michel would assemble some possible replacements, who will be invited to an interview in Lorelai's first week back. By the middle of November the latest, Michel would be gone off for good to that new job.

Michel's leaving bothered Lorelai a lot, more than she would ever admit to anyone. He was her angry friend; everyone needed one of those in their life. Yet, she had to accept his wishes; that's what friends were for.

That maxim though was hard to follow; she failed at accepting her best friend's wishes of writing a book about their life. She resented the idea of it, and at the same time, she was angry at herself for feeling that way, for not being able to understand where Rory was coming from. For the first time ever, she had to put herself and her own needs first. Waiting for Rory to come back to her. That's how their resolving of fights always worked. When they fought about Rory sleeping with Dean, making her the other woman, Rory made the first step at calling Lorelai all the way from Europe to apologize. When they were fighting about Rory not returning to Yale and giving up her dream of being a journalist, Rory was the one, who called her mother and told her she was back on track.

Lorelai would return any calls Rory would make to her, she would pick up, listen to whatever she had to tell her. That call would come; Lorelai knew that because it had always come. The waiting made her uneasy though.

When Luke mentioned her name over dinner one night, she startled. She was caught off guard by the mentions of Rory's name, as they were engaging in some easy chit-chat about this and that over dinner.

"Have you told Rory that we're going on this trip?" Luke asked.

In response, Lorelai shook her head. She was not able to form any words because the food she was eating got almost stuck in her throat at the mention of Rory's name.

"I know you're not talking, only God knows why, but you should tell her," Luke said.

Before Lorelai answered, she took a sip of water, clearing her throat. "No, she doesn't need to know. She' doing her thing, and I'm doing mine."

"Lorelai," Luke tried to argue back, but Lorelai caught his reasoning short, "Luke, I'm handling this."

"You're clearly not. Will be gone for her birthday, does she know? What will you do?"

Luke asked all these questions, all these uncomfortable questions, which she was not ready to discuss with him. He was driving her into a corner, and the only escape was putting him in his place by hissing, "It's my business how I handle my grown-up daughter."

It was none of his business. Rory writing that book of their life did not concern him. She had not had enough time to think about this proposition properly, she was not ready to share that piece of information with anyone, however, a little bit of bad conscience filled her when she saw his offended reaction.

"Got it," Luke said, raising his eyebrows, which he only did to hold back an eye-roll. He was clearly not OK with the way she handled this, when he remained silent, not engaging into the prior chit-chat over dinner. His mood had shifted, and Lorelai could not take the passive-aggressiveness this could shift to.

She closed her eyes for a moment, debating how to handle this, how to include him, yet not give anything away. He made it clear he would not give up on them, but she had to throw him a bone if she wanted to keep it like that. It was not easy for her to give in. She sighed, and said, "I'm sorry, Luke, I know this goes against everything we want to fix while on the trail, but I still have to figure out this thing with Rory on my own."

"But you're not alone in this."

"It's between Rory and me." She locked eyes with him.

"Lorelai," he pleaded, but this time around it did not work on her.

All she was willing to say was, "I'll tell you when I'm ready."

Luke's jaw flinched and he looked down at the dish in front of him, throwing the fork aside in frustration; she knew he was not happy with what she had said. She sought a way to wash his discomfort away, to make him understand that he was important to her.

Lorelai noticed Luke's discomfort and reached for his hand across the kitchen table. "Hey, this doesn't change things between us. You and me, working on becoming an 'us', that's on the top of my agenda. That thing with Rory-" She paused to sigh. "I still have to process it a little. I pushed it aside for now. We still have to prepare so much for our trip."

It took Luke a few moments before he turned his hand, so they could intertwine their fingers, but eventually, he did. He squeezed her hand, and then let go of it, taking the fork back into his hand. He looked up from his plate, locking eyes with her, and saying, "Alright."

That was all they discussed about Rory, however, they did not go back to their easy chit-chat about nothing important, not even discussing what needed to be done for their trip. One dinner spent in silence would not do them any harm, Lorelai figured, but things between them stayed tense, especially when Luke a few days later approached her with the following question, "Where are your hiking boots?"

"In the shoe box upstairs," Lorelai answered, not sure where he was going with this question.

"Get them," Luke requested her, not even adding a please or whatsoever. It made Lorelai frown.

"What for?" Her face lit up when she was realizing what was on his mind, "You finally agreed on the run-through fashion-wise, so we can see how we look in our hiking clothes next to each other?"

"No, we will break them in today."

"But it's Sunday!" Lorelai complained. "My day off, and I'm all cozy here on the couch. And there's a 'Dance Mom'-marathon on TV, you see."

"You can watch it another time," Luke snorted. His patience for reality-TV was always a little too short for Lorelai's taste. It was easy entertainment. Missing an episode was not bad either, you could follow just easily even if you skipped an episode or if you fell asleep during an episode like Luke so often did.

"I can't. I'll be gone for three weeks. I'll walk then, now I rest." She smiled at him, trying to get him to change his mind with her reasoning. Three weeks without a single minute of the joy of television in her life, and nothing but nature was the hardest part about this adventure.

Luke took the remote control and turned off the TV. "Now, we'll walk. I want to check if the boots fit your feet. You don't want to end up like Cheryl and lose almost half of your toenails?"

"She lost 6."

"Spoiler-alert!" Luke covered his ears.

"You're still not finished?" Lorelai frowned. She had given him the book right that night he had persuaded her he would tag along on her "Wild" trip. Ever since he was reading it, but was not finishing. It took him ages to read through it, which made Lorelai roll her eyes.

"I take my time reading."

"In the time you read through that book, I could master the art of folding paper, also known as origami."

"I also read the hiking guide at the same time. Because someone has to prepare our route," he retorted.

"I'll read that too," Lorelai assured him, picking up on the reproach in his statement. "Just not yet. The trip is still weeks away. No need to scare me with the details yet."

"Then, we'll scare you a little with your hiking boots today. First lesson of the day, how to put them on correctly."

Lorelai narrowed her eyes, studying Luke as he stood at the end of the couch, looking down at her, while his hands were pressed against his hips, making him appear even taller than he already was. "You won't take 'no' for an answer?"

"We agreed preparations were necessary, so not too many youngsters overtake us," he reminded her. That conversation was still present in her memory.

"But right this second? Can we go in an hour?" She tried to bargain with him, which he answered with a counter offer.

"Half an hour."

"45 minutes."

Luke rolled his eyes, but agreed, "Fine."

An extra 45 minutes granted her almost another full episode of "Dance Moms", which she was pleased to watch. She patted the space next to her on the couch, when she asked Luke to join her for the next episode. "I can fill you in what you missed so far."

"Once I sit down, I won't stand up again, you know that. I'll fall asleep the second I sit on this couch next to you," he dismissed her proposal.

"Oh, you will?" Lorelai acted surprised, curling a strand of her around her finger.

"I know when you're up to no good." Luke pointed at the grin, which was spreading across her face. He knew her well enough after living together for such a long time.

Instead of watching another episode and witnessing how Abby Lee Miller screamed at someone, Luke inspected his old camping equipment, which was his way of time well spent. However, the groans he made while doing so were distracting Lorelai from fully engaging in the reality-TV-drama-fun.

She made her way to the kitchen, where Luke was inspecting what looked like a camping cooker. She sat down at one of the chairs, asking, "What are you doing?"

"Just getting this ready for our trip, while you watch TV."

She folded her hands in front of her, leaning on her elbows, pursing her lips. She didn't like the tone he used on her. Again it was full of reproach. "Don't"

"What?"

"Don't act like I don't care about the trip. Don't act like I'm the one, who doesn't give a damn. Just don't because it's not true."

"You watch TV when you could be preparing stuff like I do. Meanwhile, I have to check a million things."

"I booked the flights and the motel, and I take care of all our online shopping. This is what they call efficient division of labor. Everybody takes care of the part of an issue, which they are good at. So, stop complaining that you have so much stuff to do because I do too," she told him off.

"What was that comment about my reading speed about? You were the one judging first."

"Seriously? You wanna go to that level of accusations? Kindergarten level?"

Luke sighed, putting the camping cooker aside, going through his hair, and then leaning his head into the hand. "No, I don't." When he met her gaze, he asked, "Why does this keep happening? Whenever we talk we fight?"

"This was not a fight," Lorelai said. They had had enough fights for her taste in the last months. This was just a disagreement, some unloading of frustration. Avoiding talking about their issues seemed harder than originally intended. They were both on the edge lately.

"It could have turned into one," Luke pointed out, and maybe he was right with this, but Lorelai rejected that.

"Things are tense between us, I know. It will get better once we're out and can finally get started," she said, looking at the camping cooker with pity. "I told you we could buy some new equipment. It would save you a lot of time."

"Waste of money when I have all this stuff sitting in the garage unused," he told her again.

She could see where he was coming from. They had had their share of arguments over that fact, she could clearly remember how he reacted to her buying two sleeping bags without his consultation first.

"What's that?" He had asked, picking up the bright orange sleeping bag she had picked for herself.

"Our sleeping bags," she had told him.

"I don't need a sleeping bag," he said, putting the bag down again, his eyes darted to the blue sleeping bag on the table.

"Of course, silly. What will keep you warm at night? Your manly attitude for sure not," she had said, patting the orange bag. She already liked the color and was happy with her pick.

"I have a sleeping bag, I don't need one."

"I bet it's falling apart already, just like all the other stuff. Do I have to remind you of the duffle bag incident of 2006?"

"Return it, I will take my mine, which is just fine, trust me. We don't need you go around and waste money and things we don't need."

"I thought I was doing you a favor." She had wrinkled her nose in disapproval, not getting how the purchase of a simple sleeping bag could ruin the mood so easily.

"Next time you ask me," he had said, and had gone to the garage to get his old one, and to Lorelai's surprise, it only had one hole, which needed to be plugged. She rolled her eyes when she had seen its color was a faded army green. The blue and the orange sleeping would have matched far better in her opinion, but when it came down to camping and surviving in the wild fashion was not the first priority. That much Lorelai understood.

She also understood that some preparation training to gain basic camping and survival skills were necessary since she was an absolute newbie to all of this. Luke reasoned that life on the trail would get easier if she knew how to start a fire already and not learning on the trail when she was exhausted from walking all day long.

Why she had to learn how to start a fire with flint stones was still out of her mind though. She held the stone in her hand, questioning this activity on her agenda again, "I don't need to know how to make a fire with flint stones. We'll have a lighter."

"What if that stops working?"

"Why would it stop working?" Lorelai scoffed. "Because we had too many cigarettes and were smoking like a chimney?"

"Just do it," Luke said, and that's how Lorelai Gilmore actually learned how to start a fire with just a flint stone. She was impressed how easy it was. They even used the fire to grill their burgers on it, and as they sat in their front yard, watching the flames cooking the meat well, she could actually imagine them on the trail. She felt prepared to do so. Luke was a good trainer, after all, keeping her on her toes, making sure she would not get lazy. Her shoes were broken in and did not longer hurt when they took their hour-long walks.

Lorelai did all kind or research for their trip too, even some that made Luke roll his eyes at her. When he even added a sigh to his eye-roll, tapping his fingers up and down against his knee, a table or any flat surface around, Lorelai knew she hit a new kind of crazy, which was just good enough for her.

Achieving that was her goal with her newest research, and she could already notice the unease washing over Luke's face, as she said, "Apparently, the best hiking song ever is 'I'm gonna be (500 miles)', undisputed, on most websites. I have to admit the lyrics are good, catchy. I have to change the lyrics though. I can't go around and sing 'I'm gonna be the man who wakes up next to you', can I? That would sound weird to our co-hikers."

"Co-hikers?" Luke interjected; he had rolled his eyes during already. Check.

"I won't embarrass myself like that, I will change it man to woman, easy-peasy. 'When I wake up, well I know I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be the woman who-" She paused, frowning, but then added, "That sounds strange. 'I'm gonna be the woman, who wakes up next to you.' I can't get that our right. I stumble across the letters. It's too long. I'll go with girl instead."

A smile flashed upon her face, not only did she manage to fix the lyrics quickly, but Luke had escaped a sigh. She started singing again, "'When I go out, yeah I know I'm gonna be, I'm gonna be the girl, who goes along with you' So much better don't you think?"

Luke nodded in response, struggling to keep his face straight. His right foot was moving up and down, eager to escape this inconvenient as fast as he could probably, but she was not ready to let him off the hook. She said, "I expect you to know the lyrics. Alright? Shall I print them out for you?"

"No." Luke frowned, clearly irritated that she would assume he would join her sing-along on the trail. "I won't sing with you."

"You have to. Who else is gonna do it?" Lorelai shot back. Singing was always more fun when there was someone to share it with.

"Your co-hikers?" Luke suggested.

"You are my co-hiker!" Lorelai reminded him.

"Not happening."

"Please, Luke, this one song, I'm not asking for more." She began to sign, trying to persuade him by serenading him, doing all sorts of crazy gestures, pointing towards him, spreading her arms wide and giving 100 percent into her performance. The audience on America's Got Talent would certainly be entertained, but not Luke, who watched her for a moment, singing, "'And I would walk 500 miles, and I would walk 500 more, just to be the girl, who walked a thousand miles for you…"

However, after she had finished the chorus, Luke's hands had slowly moved to his head, holding his cap, tapping his fingers against his forehead, trying to remain calm. When Lorelai didn't stop singing the second verse, Luke suddenly jumped up and said, "Enough, I'm outta here!"

Lorelai was pleased with herself and her abilities to drive Luke up a wall, and she was also satisfied to see that their preparations were slowly leading them somewhere, However, their departure date was there too soon nevertheless.

Two days prior their flights, Lorelai was busy wrapping up things at the inn, forwarding her tasks to Michel, who she assured to be reachable over her phone if something major came up. She would come in and check in tomorrow in the morning, but then she would be off packing for the trip.

When she came home late Luke was not there yet. He had his last day at the dinner, and he was probably going through his supplies in the storeroom, double-checking the orders he placed before he left. She waited for him, but when it was past eleven and there was still no sign of him, she decided to go to sleep without him. Tomorrow was their last day and the day of packing, and she wanted to be well rested for that. Whatever delayed Luke's arrival home was probably shattering his nerves, which a call from a needy Lorelai would only make it worse.

The following afternoon was spent packing. The equipment was easy, it was Luke's department, and Lorelai just followed his lead. Clothing on the under hand was not so easy. They looked at the piles of clothes on their bed, which they intended to bring on the trip. Lorelai's pile looked twice as big as Luke's, which prompted Luke to take a closer look at Lorelai's pile of clothes.

"What on earth makes you think you'll need not one, but three kinds of hats on the trail?" he asked, while he looked at a gray one, a black one and a hat with what either could be a bear or a dog.

"I need some backup clothes," she said, as she snatched the hats from his hands. She placed them on the definitely-gonna-take-those-clothes-on-the-trail-pile.

"Yes, clothes."

"Hats are clothes."

"Ok, but a back-up indicates just one back-up, not two."

"Says who?"

"I will not talk you out of bringing three hats with you, even though it's clearly unnecessary and you will not need three?" Luke declared his defeat on this matter.

"Don't say that, you'll jinx it," she urged him. There was a discussion on all the clothes. Sometimes Luke won; sometimes Lorelai could argue the need of a back-up or even two. While Lorelai could take three kinds of hats on the trail, Luke wore her down to leave one of the two pullovers behind. She relied on his professional opinion, on his experience even though Luke had never been on a trail like this before.

Nevertheless, he was her guidepost. She would have been lost without him. She had no clue about things like this, and she was happy he fought to come with her. He was right to do so. He was her only safe harbor in these uneasy times, where everybody else was somehow stabbing her in the back and leaving her alone. He was still there, she better hold onto that.

* * *

 _I hope you enjoyed this chapter too. It contains a lot of set-up for the story._

 _So, do you think Lorelai is prepared well enough for this trip? She found the perfect catchy tune, the perfect sleeping bag, the perfect backpacks. Any guesses, how Lorelai named the second backpack after all? Let me know what you think (:_

 _See you soon for another update!_


	3. Departure

**Chapter 3: Departure**

The day of departure had finally come. Their big adventure was just around the corner. It was just a plane ride to California away, which was a car ride away to the airport.

Before they could get started and leave the house for three weeks, Luke took one final round through the house to make sure all windows were shut and therefore no one could break into the house. In the meantime, Lorelai said her goodbye to Babette, who would take care of Paul-Anka. She was probably joking about Luke's overcaution. He was right with his guess because they turned their heads with a mischievous smile on their faces around when he stepped on the porch.

He locked the front door and wanted to join the two ladies when he noticed the backpacks were exactly where he had left them. Close to the porch's steps were Gary and Mary still sitting. Mary was the name Lorelai had come up with for his backpack. He had known better than to fight her on this because she had been so happy about the new name. Way better than Joey because Gary and Mary rhymed. There wouldn't be a song of the four of them, but it was good enough for Lorelai. And if she was happy, Luke was happy too.

However, he sighed at the sight of Mary and Gary standing in exactly the same spot. He put each backpack with one strap on one of his shoulders. Luckily, they were still rather light so he wouldn't hurt his back with all of the weight. All of the food would be purchased in California and a few unhandy equipment items too.

With a few big strides, he joined Lorelai and Babette, storing his house keys into one of the pockets of his jeans. He patted that pocket afterward, telling the ladies, "All set."

"Finally," Lorelai teased. "We were wondering what took you so long."

"Someone forgot to shut the bathroom window," Luke jerked his head in Lorelai's direction, raising his eyebrows in the process. He was making clear who was responsible for that.

The responsible person, however, deflected the question, just like she always did. "I wonder who that was," Lorelai said, grinning at him.

Luke chose to ignore it, and said instead, "Babette, you know everything you need to know about this one?" Luke gestured to the Paul-Anka, who looked up to him, his eyes as big as the ones from a puppy. They almost looked sad, but Luke chose to ignore that too.

"Don't worry. Paul-Anka and I will have a great time. Just make sure this doll won't hurt herself, will ya?" Babette bumped Lorelai in the side, which was her way of showing affection. It was no secret that Babette considered Lorelai as her daughter or at least someone she had to take care of. The years of living next door certainly had left an impression on Babette's behavior. Babette was especially surprised when she had learned about Lorelai's plans of going off to nature on her own, even voicing her concern to Luke once or twice. She had asked all these questions, which Luke had done on that night in the kitchen, which also questioned Lorelai's idea in the first place. Babette wanted to make sure Lorelai was serious about it, waiting for Lorelai to tell the punch line to this joke.

When Babette had learned Luke would join Lorelai, she was relieved. Hugging Luke so close one evening when he had come home one night after it had made the round both Lorelai and he would not be around in October. He could still see the concern in Babette's eyes though, Lorelai was, after all, like one of Babette's cats, a baby she cared for, and she would do whatever was within her power to protect Lorelai from the bad in the world.

"She'll be back in one piece," Luke promised. He had given her the same promise on the night she had hugged him close to thank him for joining her on the "Wild" trip.

"You betta. If she doesn't, I will hunt your cute ass to the Grand Canyon and make ya jump off a cliff," Babette said, gesturing with the hands in front of her tiny body. Luke knew, however, that Babette should not be underestimated. She was stronger than she appeared to be.

"Alright, got it." Luke chuckled, patting Babette's shoulder. He then leaned down to pat over Paul-Anka's head. He said his goodbye to him and to Babette. Then he brought the backpacks to the truck, loading them onto the truck bed of the pick-up.

In the corner of his eyes, he could see Babette bumping her elbow in Lorelai's side, jerking his head in Luke's direction. Luke was sure she was making an inappropriate comment about his butt again. He shook his head, but he noticed that Lorelai would not respond to Babette's praising of Luke's physical appearance.

Suddenly, she did not seem in a teasing mode anymore, instead, she crouched to pat Paul-Anka one more time. She had cuddled him all night long, allowing him to sleep with them in the bed. Luke had not objected to that since he knew Lorelai was struggling with leaving him.

He could comprehend her actions, he felt similar reluctant to leave Paul-Anka and Stars Hollow. Finally, after so much preparation time the day of their departure was here, and he was not sure whether they were ready for this or not. There was no turning back or getting out of it anymore, they would catch the plane to California and tomorrow they would be starting to hike the PCT.

Tomorrow, Luke sighed, but he got into the car. He would not be the one, who would call this off. He had committed to it, and his mind was set on boarding the plane. It was just nerves playing a trick on him, he told himself.

The same kind of nerves probably was bugging Lorelai, who still patted Paul-Anka. Luke could not blame her though after all Paul-Anka was the only living being, which didn't complicate her life and Lorelai had troubles parting and finally facing her problems. One of them was patiently waiting for in the truck.

After Lorelai had received a probably bone-crashing hug from Babette, she got into the passenger side of the truck, fastening the seatbelt. Luke started the engine and drove off. Lorelai's eyes remained on Babette and Paul-Anka, her hand waving them goodbye. When they were out of sight, Lorelai turned her head back, so she could look straight at the street again. Eventually, her head turned though when they passed familiar buildings of Stars Hollow. The church, the high school, the bookstore, his diner and the old folks home, which had an oddly big sign in front of it, which looked nothing familiar.

It felt weird to Luke too, leaving Stars Hollow, leaving it behind for the unknown. Maybe, when they came back in three weeks they would not be the same anymore. Everything could happen on the trail, but only time could tell how things would develop.

The ride to the airport was spent in silence until Lorelai decided to play some music on the radio. It drove Luke crazy that she would not stay longer than a few minutes on a radio station; she switched songs and moods ever so often.

However, Luke knew better than to moan about it and held his tongue. He would not complain about it because he understood that Lorelai was on the edge and any comment from his behalf could make her explode. Even though, he prepared himself for an explosion sometime along this trip. It was bound to happen, but the car ride to the airport was neither the place nor the time for it.

Luke, too, was getting more nervous with every mile they were distancing from Stars Hollow. However, it was not the unknown which bugged him; it was the plane ride he had still ahead of him which bothered him. It was hard for him to keep his nerves under control, clenching to the steering wheel.

He had flown before, but he had never grown comfortable with that type of transportation. If he was able to choose, he would go for the car. He preferred even a big ferry on the wide ocean to a plane.

His nervousness broke free when he sat on the plane. The other passengers had long boarded as well and he had listened to the safety instructions. In the little time till takeoff, he had enough time to work himself up in a state. His heart was racing and his feet would not keep still, signaling him to get out of here. His hands were sweaty and he smoothed them over his legs, rocking in the seat back and forth.

As the plane gained speed and rolled over the runway, an arm looped around his. He turned to his right; Lorelai shot him a reassuring smile and then took his hand in hers. He held onto it tightly, probably crashing it in the process, but even if he did, she kept her face straight, probably not to make him worry any more than he already was.

When the plane had finally taken off, Luke closed his eyes, leaned his head back and took slowly breath after breath, calming himself with that. He never let go off Lorelai's hand, not even when a tone signaled that the seat belts did not have to be worn anymore and the dangerous part of the takeoff was over. His grip on her hand loosened a bit though.

Overall, Luke was relieved Lorelai refrained herself from commenting or mocking his discomfort. She had been quiet throughout the entire time and Luke figured she needed the time to herself too. That was why he wasn't too surprised when she withdrew her hand from his grip eventually, which made Luke shoot his eyes wide open at the sudden movement. He sensed some out of the ordinary motion on his right, and he caught Lorelai tugging at the armrest, on which his elbow leaned on. "What are you doing?"

Lorelai didn't answer him, but requested, "Move your arm."

"Why?" Luke asked. He was, finally, comfortable on the plane and he didn't want to change his position until refreshments were served.

"I want to get this thing up. So, move!" She pushed at his biceps, so he would move his arm away. Luke sighed, and gave in, putting his arm off the armrest. Then, he watched Lorelai pulling the armrest up and therefore out of the way. He didn't know what to do with his arm anymore and where to put it exactly, now that the armrest was gone. Before he could decide what to do, he felt Lorelai's hand on his thigh, tugging at his jeans.

"Come on, make yourself a little comfier. The flight is long and you'll be all tense when you sit like this any longer." Lorelai said, and then she pulled his leg closer to hers, making him spread his legs further apart, so Luke could sit in his preferred sitting position with his legs spread. His hand instinctively fell on her knee, just like it would whenever they watched TV at home.

When he realized that, he wanted to pull it away, but Lorelai's words made him decide otherwise. She rolled her eyes as she spoke, "Big guys like you need some space. These planes get tinier and tinier every time I fly, I swear. Soon, we'll all be standing like cows in a bus"

"Thanks." He squeezed her knee and Lorelai shot him another one of her reassuring smiles. She crossed her arms in front of her and leaned against the window, watching the land and clouds under them passing by.

Luke decided to linger in the moment, and not engage her into a conversation. Both of them remained in silence. A plane ride was yet again not the place to have a talk. Everything they needed to talk about was something, which could not be discussed in public, even less in a tiny airplane, in which everybody could listen to them. It was worse than in Stars Hollow, even though the people on the plane were complete strangers.

Instead, Luke remained silent, drawing silly circles on her knee. Holding her knee in his right palm kept him grounded, even though they were 30,000 feet above the ground.

When they finally reached the ground of California after a six hour long flight, due to the change it of the time zones, it was still morning in California They had the rest of the day to make some last day shopping and get to the point of the trail, where they would join it.

As soon as they had gotten a rental car, they made a beeline for an outdoor shop, where they purchased the last big items for their trip. Lorelai insisted bringing a super light pillow with owls on it. She spotted in the shop, and she decided she could not live without it anymore. All of Luke's arguing of it being just dead weight reached upon deaf ears. That's why he wouldn't listen to her when he decided to bring a super light camping chair with him. Of course, they could sit on the ground instead, but they could also use some clothes as a pillow.

"I'll ditch my chair if you ditch your pillow," he offered.

"Not happening," she crossed her arms in front of her, hugging the pillow close to her chest in the process.

"Let's make a deal, if we complain about the weight, we will ditch these two items first."

At first, Lorelai looked unwary, but she accepted that proposal. They both were stubborn and with agreeing to Luke's idea they both got what they wanted. It was a truce.

It only lasted for a moment, until Lorelai reached for some bear spray, while Luke grabbed a two-pack of whistles, saying, "This will be enough."

"I don't want to risk it," Lorelai said, and patted his shoulder, to stop him from saying anything else, "Plus, it's on REI's list of things to pack, so we pack it."

Luke rolled his eyes, but he decided the spray would go into her backpack, there was no way he would carry it that around. The next product they had arguments about could not solely go into her backpack though; it was a shared product, but he left her the choice to it. He didn't care what kind of shampoo or body wash they would take with them.

Lorelai, however, complained about it. "All these shampoos and body washes don't smell good. There's no coconut scent. And no peach. How will I survive without my peach scented hair?"

Lorelai reached for one of the shampoos and opened the lit to smell it. It said citrus, but Lorelai wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Ugh, that's a turn-off. Smells like Mr. Propper."

She reached for another bottle and smelled it. "Why does this smell so boring?"

She turned to Luke, who had patiently waited for her to decide which shampoo would suit her high standards. She put the shampoo under his nose and wanted him to sniff it. Luke didn't care about it, pushed her hand with the bottle away. He lowered his head, and frowned, "You're actually asking that? You're serious?"

Lorelai nodded in response.

"It's a biodegradable soap," he explained, thinking that was explanation enough, but Lorelai's eyebrows just raised, which made Luke elucidate, "We can use it at a lake or river without decontaminating the water."

"We're gonna have a wash in a river?" Lorelai said. "I thought there were showers on the way."

"Can you please say, you're kidding," Luke begged of her. "Otherwise, I might have a mental breakdown right here and right now. I'm not in the mood for this playful attitude of yours. This is dead-serious. Can we please be-"

"Dead-serious?" Lorelai cut him off.

Luke shot her a glare because her voice was full of mockery and it annoyed Luke when she could not stay serious and made joke after joke, trying to reach another one of Luke's annoyance levels. Sometimes Lorelai would make a contest out of it, driving him with their silliness up a wall, but today he had to cut it short.

"Of course, I get why we have to buy this soap. I hope we don't have to use it though."

"You just want to skip showering?" He challenged her. "You, who needs to shower whenever we come back from your mother's house because you want to get rid of the old, snobby Hartford smell? Or whenever Taylor comes too close to you? Or whenever you come too close to Indian food?"

"Indian food stinks," Lorelai interjected.

"Childish." Luke pointed at her and grabbed a shampoo with his other hand. He held it up to her face, asking, "That's alright?"

She looked at the plain bottle and frowned, but she nodded to give her consent. "What's next?" she asked.

"Food," Luke replied, to which Lorelai's face up again. Luke was not surprised, he knew how to lure her. As they made their way to the food department, she chimed, "Yippee! Snacks!"

They settled for a collection of food, and Lorelai was even able to sneak some instant coffee into the shopping cart. She couldn't go through a day without coffee, even it meant drinking the most awful and cheapest coffee in the world. One coffee a day would do, it had to do; more packages would not fit in her backpack and would make it heavier than necessary. Luke only reluctantly agreed on that, but Lorelai was right, she could not afford to go into some kind of withdrawals when her body with all the exercise would go through an extreme situation anyway.

Luke had carefully cut down her coffee consumption over the last weeks. She had even switched to decaf, which had made her crankier at times, but Luke mused it was better she was cranky before the trip than on the trip.

After another half an hour, they were, finally, on the road with their rental car to their starting point. The car was loaded with the shopping bags and the backpacks, which they had brought along. The new scenery distracted Luke and Lorelai and made them both calm and relaxed. When Lorelai could not decide on a radio station again, Luke didn't get annoyed with it; he even encouraged it and told her off when he did not enjoy listening to a certain song.

In the evening, they arrived at the motel, from where their starting point of the PCT was close. An older looking woman greeted them at the reception. Lorelai instantly responded to the greeting and told the woman her name to help her find the reservation she had made weeks prior to the trip.

"Oh, the Gilmores. Got you," the woman said with enthusiasm in her voice.

Luke's head shot to Lorelai, who apparently was just as surprised by this mix-up as him. However, she knew how to respond to it quicker than him, she said, "Erm, we're not married. I'm Lorelai Gilmore and this is-"

She looked at Luke expectantly, so he would introduce himself. He got the hint, and said, "I'm Luke Danes. We're-"

The voice got stuck in his throat. He didn't know how to finish the sentence. Instead, he looked again at Lorelai, who laughed nervously, trying to diffuse the awkwardness of the situation. "We're traveling together."

What she had said was true, they were indeed traveling, but it sounded like they were nothing more than platonic. That bridge had been crossed years ago, but in the end, what did it actually matter what a lady in a hotel thought of them. They were traveling together, making this trip to figure them as a couple out. They didn't know what be in three weeks time.

"Do we have to fill in something?" Lorelai quickly asked, trying to come over the weirdness.

The woman slid two forms over the counter, together with two pens, and Lorelai and Luke started filling out the forms, not engaging in any small talk with the lady. They got the keys to their room and settled into the dark old room. It didn't have the charm of an inn or even a B&B. Even though, the old woman could work perfectly fine at a B&B as well. They placed the shopping bags and the backpacks on the bed. Usually, Lorelai would be looking for the remote by now, and Luke would be settled on the bed, but they had to pack the newly bought stuff into their backpacks.

Luke made two piles, one for him to get into his backpack, Mary, and one for Lorelai to fit into hers, which she lovingly called Gary. While Luke knew how to pack a backpack efficiently, Lorelai was a newbie to it and she struggled to keep it all of her belongings in her backpack. "Oh, come on, Gary," she moaned when she tried for the third time to fit everything in, but she failed. There was stuff popping out of the pack. Luke wondered how she managed to do that.

With a little help of Luke, they could manage to make it all fit, even leaving some extra space, so her owl pillow could fit easily. Gary and Mary were ready for tomorrow, but Lorelai and Luke were not ready to go to sleep yet.

Late, too late for Luke's taste, they were finally able to get into bed and catch some sleep. It was their last night in a proper bed for three weeks and he hoped he would have some relaxing sleep. The mattress was too hard, but maybe exhaustion will make his back forget about that.

Luke watched Lorelai plug her phone in and let it charge. They had agreed on bringing a phone with them. It had taken some long discussion and Lorelai reading several recommendations from other people to convince him, but he understood the pros outweighed the cons. He had to admit, a phone was a useful device in a case of an emergency after all. Other than that Luke saw no use in a phone on the trail, Lorelai, however, argued they could use her phone as a camera as well, a much lighter version of a camera, which made Luke only roll his eyes and nod to whatever she had to say.

Still Luke was not a fan of bringing the phone along with a power bank with them on the trail. Doing "Wild" while still being reachable seemed not right and missing the point entirely. The point of this trip was to get away from home and not stay in touch with everyone.

That was why he asked her to switch the phone to flight mode. Lorelai argued back that they should be reachable when something happened at home, like an emergency at the Dragonfly or with Paul-Anka. They settled for a quick check-up once a day, since Luke had told April she could reach him on Lorelai's phone. She had just started the new semester at MIT for grad school.

"I'm sorry you missed April's big moving day and starting grad school, but we were so wrapped up in preparations. There was just no time," Lorelai said as she came back from plugging in the charger of the phone, settling on her side of the bed.

"Oh, yeah, it's alright," Luke said, waving if off. "I went there a day."

"You did?" Lorelai asked. "When?"

"Just before we left," Luke said, narrowing his eyes. He tried to recall whether he had told Lorelai about this, but her reactions didn't make it seem like it. He would tell her now, so it wouldn't become a big thing. "Caesar noticed how much it bugged me that I couldn't be there to move April into her new apartment and told me to go. He wanted to prove me that he can handle the diner on his own, I mean, he has these three weeks to prove it to me anyway."

He paused to roll his eyes at that. Caesar was so eager to overtake the diner, maybe he would be the one overtaking the business once Luke retired. In the meantime, Lorelai just said, "Uh-huh"

"So, I drove up to Boston. You should have seen April's face when I stood in front of her door. A total surprise. She was already moved in, but I ended up hanging up pictures and doing little stuff she hadn't gotten around to do."

"I see." At first, Lorelai smiled, but then frowned when she asked, "Was that the day you came home so late?"

"Yeah."

"I thought you were at the diner, getting things in order there before we leave."

"No." He tried his best to be honest with her; he had not been hiding this from her. He prayed she would not be misunderstanding this. He thought the short answers would make it even clearer.

"You went to see April."

"It was on short notice," Luke highlighted that fact. It was on short notice indeed; it was not even planned. He had not gotten up with the intention to see April on that day. Originally, he was ought to get things in order at the diner. It just happened. It was Caesar's pushy attitude, which made him get into the truck and drive up all the way to Boston. It was quite some ride, three hours, but traffic had not been bad at all.

"You could have told me," she accused him.

"I'm telling you now."

"It's not the same," Lorelai emphasized.

"It slipped my mind," Luke said. "I came home late. You were asleep. The next time I saw you awake, we were preparing for the trip. When was I supposed to tell you this? There was no time, OK? It was not my intention to hide it."

Lorelai had crossed her arms in front of her chest. She pointed out, "It seems like it. And here I was thinking that you really wanted to work on us."

"I do!" Luke could not believe it she was making such a big deal out of this. "And I'm sorry I didn't tell you. If it makes you happy, April asked about you. She had a decoration issue and you know I'm no big help with that. She put it on an app to help her decide instead. After a couple of minutes, some strangers helped her decide what to choose. It would have been easier with you there, but she managed otherwise."

He didn't want April to be a block in their way, again. They had been there and they had done that. He knew keeping April from her was not a solution. That was why he was giving her all the details of his visit with his daughter. His soothing seemed to work, because Lorelai no longer accused him, but instead said, "She sure knows how to solve a problem."

"She's going to college for a reason," he said, but Lorelai would not say anymore, fumbling with the sheets, probably re-evaluating the situation, which prompted Luke to assure her, "I was not keeping this from you."

"OK." She bit her lip, which signaled Luke she was thinking about something.

"Lorelai," Luke sighed.

She let go of her bottom lip and instead of uttering the thought she had been obviously thinking about, she said, "We'll talk about this on the trail."

"Sure," Luke agreed and watched as Lorelai settled under the covers for good, turning the light off on her nightstand. She then said, "Night."

Luke held back another sigh, and instead said, "Night."

He also settled under the covers, but he could not think about sleep yet. All he could do was stare at the ceiling and wonder how he could have made the situation even tenser than it already was. They had made slow process all day long, and with such a slip of his mind, they had gotten back to ice time. He hoped the talks on the trail would do as much magic as they both needed it to do. Tomorrow couldn't come soon enough.

* * *

 _Thanks for reading; I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Lorelai and Luke are finally about to go on the trail. Are you excited? Do you think they can resolve everything there?_

 _And another note: Please, don't stress over the fact that Luke kept an April-related issue from Lorelai._ _I know with all that's going on in the revival, there was necessarily no need to create some more drama, but I wanted to highlight a specific part of Luke and Lorelai's relationship and their way of communication. I can't say any more without giving much away, but it will get addressed at a later point. Please, trust me for now, and I hope to see you all for the next update. Have a good weekend for now. (:_


	4. Ground Rules

**Chapter 4: Ground Rules**

In the morning, Lorelai was full of energy, eager to start with the trail and the hiking. She had been waiting for this moment for weeks, and it was finally there. Getting the backpack on her shoulders was tricky at first, but she managed with some special tactic. She probably didn't look graceful while putting Gary on, but Luke was busy getting ready himself and not paying attention.

They had not spoken much, only exchanging the necessary words, which either he would respond to with a groan or a short answer. Things between them were tenser than ever. A change of location would do them good, Lorelai had to believe in it. This motel room had jinxed the good mood they had while getting there. They had been joking on the car ride, she had even initiated body contact. As soon as the lady at the reception assumed they were married, things were off again, a big distance forming between them.

The only distance they should be concentrating on at the moment was the distance to their goal on the trail. There were 211 miles ahead of them. There were 211 miles to get everything in order with their lives and relationship. She hoped it was enough miles.

When they arrived at their starting point for the trail, she saw all of these girls and women. They were chatting, calling if someone did "Wild" by the book or the movie. She looked at the small group, which had formed, who would do "Wild" based on the book. She was tempted to go and stand with them, start a conversation. After all, she was doing "Wild" because of the book. She looked to her left, to Luke, who wouldn't move an inch, waiting for the ranger to finally let them enter the trail.

Lorelai decided against engaging in a conversation with the girls, who eagerly discussed when they had come up with the idea of doing "Wild". She caught snippets like divorce and the death of the mother. Both which also applied to Cheryl Strayed, the author of "Wild". To Lorelai, neither a divorce nor the death of her mother was true, but in her opinion that didn't matter. Doing "Wild" was doing "Wild".

Her personal "Wild" trip was not meant to start that particular day though. The park ranger advised the hikers to take a day off since a bad storm was hitting them. Most of the people took that advice, but Lorelai felt like she couldn't wait another day. She needed this journey to begin. She needed it so badly.

But Luke held her back, telling her they better follow the park ranger's suggestion. "Don't make a fool of yourself and try talking to the ranger."

"I'm not making a fool out of myself," she argued back.

"That guy sees hikers day in and day out, he knows how experienced hikers look like, who could handle such bad weather. You and me, we're not those experienced hikers."

Luke's words were getting to her, but she remained looking to the park ranger and the path behind him. That was where the solutions to all her problems laid.

"We'll start tomorrow when it's safer. Another day won't hurt," Luke said and made his way back from where they had come from.

Lorelai didn't follow him right away, her gaze lingering on the trail, which was just within reach. She genuinely hoped another day would do no harm to them.

Back at the motel, they reorganized their backpacks a little, making sure they had everything at a preferably good place within Gary and Mary. They double-checked their re-supply points, and re-read the hiking guides. All of that was done in silence, only exchanging the necessary words.

This extra day made it extra hard on them after all, maybe it hurt them even, Lorelai wouldn't know. At one point, she had to escape the tension in the room, pretending she would want to stretch a bit and break in her boots a little more, give them some warm-up before they would not leave their feet for three weeks.

She walked around the motel's property, passing by the ice machine and some old looking instant coffee machine. For a second, she thought about getting a cup of coffee, but then she decided against it. Over the last weeks, she had cut back her coffee consumption because she wouldn't be able to have as much on the trail as she is used to. She had switched to decaf coffee at points, which Luke was proud of, and she was surprised she had the guts to do it. Even though, without her fix in the morning, she could not live. She persuaded Luke to bring little packages of instant coffee with her.

Still, she wandered on, passing by the parking lot, where she noticed some people gathering in little groups. It was a like tailgate party, but much smaller and didn't include any barbecue.

She decided to make her way up there and noticed the girls from the morning were sitting there. Lorelai approached them warily, smiling, to indicate she was coming on good terms and not accusing them of being too noisy.

One of them jerked her head, and greeted her by asking, "Book or movie?"

Lorelai smiled. She had noticed how strict the separation between the people doing "Wild" based on the book and the movie was. She herself preferred the book, the movie didn't compare. "Book."

"Then sit!" One of the women invited her, offering her a seat to sit. They all introduced themselves. The two girls Lorelai had listened to earlier that day were Tracey and Allie. She couldn't remember Brenda, who wore a pair of glasses, but apparently, she had been there too. And then there was Ellory, who was just as excited about food as Lorelai would be when she had something special she enjoyed eating a lot.

After a short introduction of where they were from and a short take on their stories, it was Lorelai's turn to introduce herself, and at the same time avoiding any question, which were too personal. She did not want to over-share.

"You're hiking alone?" Brenda asked.

"No, I'm with someone. I'm clumsier than Cheryl, it's safer that way," Lorelai joked, which earned her a smile on the women's faces.

"Where is she?" Allie asked, her blonde hair in a ponytail shaking from one side to the other as her head jerked in the direction of the motel.

"Bring her out to us," Tracey chimed in.

"The 'she' is actually a 'he'," Lorelai clarified. She was not sure if guys doing "Wild" was common or even accepted within the group of women.

That question was answered right away, when Ellory said, with a little too much enthusiasm for Lorelai's taste, "We're open for some testosterone, right girls?"

Lorelai didn't know how to answer to that, bringing Luke out her seemed impossible. And it would spoil her plan to get a little distance between them. That decision, however, was taken from her hands again, when Brenda leaned over and asked, "Is he your husband?"

"Oh, no," Lorelai said defensively.

"Ah." Brenda leaned back again and exchanged a smile with Allie to her left, who then winked at Lorelai and said, "Just a friend. We get t it."

"No, it's not like that." Lorelai shook her head. Luke and she were nothing but casual lovers, who would hook up occasionally when the other was up for it. They were not booty buddies as Emily Gilmore had put it just half a year ago.

The women, however, interpreted her answer in a different way than expected. Allie exclaimed, "He's gay, right?"

"You brought your gay best friend?" Tracey said, her voice full of enthusiasm too. "That is brilliant. I should have done that."

That made Lorelai laugh hard. She imagined what it would be like if she had brought her gay best friend to this trip. The thought of Michel in a plaid shirt cracked Lorelai up. It was too much to handle, and the picture of him being dressed as Luke was beyond her imagination. She would give everything to see him in a plaid shirt and cherish that image forever. The pained look on Michel's face would be the best she would ever see.

Eventually, she calmed down and corrected herself, "No, he's not my gay best friend. Best friend, yes. Gay, no. At least, I think so, otherwise, the last nine years of being together would have been a lie."

"Your boyfriend then," Brenda said.

Lorelai frowned. Boyfriend sounded out of place. Could you call the man you had been a relationship for almost a decade your boyfriend? Isn't it a little weird for her to call a man her boyfriend when she was pushing fifty? "Yeah, kind of."

And again the girls jumped to conclusions, asking questions out of the blue. "Did he cheat?" Allie blurted out.

"What?" The thought of Luke cheating on her was mind-blowing. He was the most loyal person she could think of. She trusted him around other women completely.

"Gambling, right?" Brenda asked. "That's the problem you try to solve here?"

"No!" Gambling sounded even more out of place for Luke than the cheating.

"He's very possessive and aggressive?" Ellory asked.

"No, he's a good guy," Lorelai reasoned. She couldn't believe how these women wanted to find the bad in her relationship.

"That's what they all say," Brenda said, leaning over to toast her glass with Allie's. Lorelai could only imagine what they must have been through.

"No, he's kind and loyal," Lorelai explained. "And all he would do in Las Vegas would be having a layover because there's nothing to do for him. He hates the shows, he's not interested in the casinos and shopping is a hassle for him too. Nothing but a waste of money."

"So, why are you guys here then?" Tracey asked.

"Pleasure?" Brenda interjected.

"No one's on the PCT for pleasure nowadays," Allie threw in.

"We have to figure something out," Lorelai answered.

"Sounds vague," Ellory commented.

"Hey, not everyone's as open and forward as you," Tracey argued back. "Don't pressure her."

"I better should go check on-" Lorelai felt like she had overstayed her welcome and gestured to where the motel rooms were. She had to be gone long enough, it was already dark outside and Luke and she had agreed on calling it an early night, so they would be well-rested for the hike.

When she entered the room, she found Luke sitting on the bed, the shoes brushed off. He was sitting there with only socks; it looked domestic. The room was so unfamiliar though, strange and foreign. Even though, on the TV Luke was currently watching was one of the shows she claimed to like so much.

Luke didn't greet her with words when she came back into the room, which only highlighted their weird behavior with each other all day long. He didn't ask about her whereabouts. That was proof of how they were tiptoeing around each other. For weeks, they had been doing so, avoiding any real talk, which was of substance. Yesterday's late night talk about Luke's visit to April was the great exception, but only added to the tension between them

They had been so eager to start with the PCT in the morning because they were equally eager to finally talk. They wanted to discuss things. For the last weeks, they had waited to be on the PCT. It had all been bottled up, pushed back, and Lorelai was not sure how much longer she was able to hold it back. They needed to talk, properly talk, and discuss. They also needed to argue, and maybe even fight. The fall-out was overdue. A proper talk was overdue. But not here. Not in a motel room. The PCT was the place for it; that was what they had agreed on.

Lorelai stood by the door, debating whether she should go to the bathroom or sit on the bed or the chair close-by. She couldn't pick an option because Luke patted the bed on his left and held the remote control in her direction. It was an invitation, and it would only add to the tension if she rejected it.

Reluctantly though, she sat down. The duvet was old and the night she had stayed in the bed was enough for her standards. She leaned back on the pillow and kicked her shoes off too. They watched TV in silence for a few minutes, and then Luke asked her the question she thought he would have asked as soon as she had come back, "Where have you been so long?"

"The 'Wild' girls called me over. They were having a little get together," Lorelai answered.

"Ah, right." Luke nodded, narrowing his eyes.

By that Lorelai knew he didn't get it, trying to figure out what she was hiding. "Can't say no to that."

"Sure."

"We better be friendly with them, we might see them again and spend an evening together." Lorelai shrugged and added, "They are really nice."

"Yeah?"

"Nosey, but nice." Lorelai chuckled. Luke would be irritated by those kinds of questions. If they ever happened to meet, it would be a very interesting conversation.

"What did they want to know?" Luke was not really paying attention to the TV anymore.

From the corners of her eyes, Lorelai could tell he had her head turned toward her, but she refused to look at him, keeping her answers short. "Who I am, where I'm from, why I'm here, who you are. Question after question."

"Didn't you have the answers?"

"No, I had 'em all." Lorelai frowned. She did not understand where this questioning came from and what it meant. She couldn't make any sense of Luke's behavior. She looked at Luke, who studied her as well. His eyes were wide open, his jaw seemed relaxed, but his head was tilt.

Lorelai sighed, and then gave away, "I just can't wait to get started."

"I know." Luke nodded and the corners of his mouth fidgeted up to a quick, yet wary smile. "Me neither."

Lorelai returned his nodding, and resettled on the bed, folding her legs underneath her. She sat on the bed straighter, so she could face him properly. A face-to-face conversation was long overdue. She was about to ask a question, which needed to be answered with honesty. She was scared of the response; she didn't know it herself. Her voice was a whisper, not carrying far in the room, but Luke was just a feet away. "You think it will help us as much as we want it to?"

Luke didn't long to answer, but exhaled, "Don't know."

That was the same answer she had come up with. The unknown. She licked her lips, and said, "Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"I think we should settle some rules."

"Rules?" Luke sat up straighter too, but still leaning against the headboard, bending his legs a little in front of him, so he could rest an arm on his knee.

"For when we're on the hike," Lorelai clarified.

"OK," Luke left his answer in the air and furrowed his brow.

"Like-" Lorelai shrugged, "-even when you're really angry with me you won't run away and leave me alone in nature."

Luke's frown instantly washed away from his face, and his right hand rubbed over his thigh. "Noted."

"And we respect when the other says stop and then pause the discussing for a while." Lorelai kept looking Luke straight in the eye. She was happy to notice he wouldn't shirk from her look but returned her look.

"Fine," he agreed.

"And we can't leave the trail until we resolved everything," she laid emphasis on the last word. Three weeks should be long enough to discuss everything, but maybe they needed an extra day or two to resolve it completely.

"Big goal," Luke commented. His eyes darted away. He swallowed.

"Anything you want to add?" It was his right to set some rules too if he had agreed to all of hers. Maybe there was something she had not thought about. A second opinion was usually good.

"Discussing our issues won't come first," Luke said, meeting her gaze again.

"Luke!" Lorelai argued, "But that's the whole point of this hike."

"Let me finish." He put his hands up to make her stop. "Getting water, food, setting up a tent, that all comes first. Dangerous situations get solved first and not discussing our issues."

Lorelai could see where he was coming from. His arguments made sense. "Agreed. Before we die of thirst, we stop discussing."

"And we don't talk with people in hearing distance," Luke added.

It made Lorelai smile and also made her roll her eyes. "Of course. That's why we chose the woods for this in the first place, so we could yell at each other without shame, right?"

She reached out to place a hand on her knee, gripping it tightly and moving her hand back and forth.

Luke returned her smile and placed a hand over her hand as well. He took a deep breath and then said, "Right."

Lorelai didn't flinch away when she felt Luke's hand on hers. All she did was to meet his gaze. His eyes seemed not full of wariness anymore; there was something else in them, she could not put her finger on it exactly, but it felt good.

After all, this had been the most honest and intimate talk they had shared in weeks and some body contact seemed required to emphasize that intimacy. He smoothed his hand over her upper arm, which brought a chill down Lorelai's spine. She closed her eyes to give into the sensation.

Soon Luke's second hand was caressing her other arm too, which made her open her eyes. Luke was in the process of rearranging, leaning forward and Lorelai was not sure if he was about to kiss her or not. She felt a little disappointed when he let go of her and lied down on the bed, settling on his side.

Maybe kissing was not the right thing to do just yet, Luke was right, but then she felt his hand on her knee again. "Come, lie down."

She compiled and settled on her side as well, looking at him. Their faces were just inches apart. One of Lorelai's hands rested on his chest, feeling it rise and set from his breathing. His heart was beating steadily, not too fast though. She felt closer to him than she had felt in weeks.

Their feet were touching each other, caressing, playing footsie, soon Luke's arm was wrapped around Lorelai's waist, drawing her closer to him. It felt so good, yet not right at all.

"And one more thing," Lorelai said as she felt his breathing near her face. He was about to kiss her; she knew it. And once she kissed him, she was not sure if she would be able to stop. She didn't know what made her stop this exactly, but it was not feeling right. Something in her stomach told her to stop this before it got out of hand.

"Yeah?" Luke whispered.

"No sex until things are resolved," Lorelai whispered, her eyes darting to his lips.

"OK." Luke released his grip on her, bringing some space between them. He tried playing this incident down by saying, "I'll remind you when you jump me while passing through a wood."

"I'm serious." Lorelai whacked his chest because it was closest. "Sex gets in the way."

"It's not like we had a whole lot of sex in the last weeks anyway," Luke countered.

"You're complaining?" Lorelai challenged him. She thought not having sex before the trail was a mutual agreement, even though they have never talked about it. They had always been so busy in the last weeks, that sex not even once crossed her mind, to be honest.

"Just saying. Besides, you having sex in the wild is-" Luke paused, probably to find the right words, "-actually beyond my imagination."

"I've slept outdoors," Lorelai argued.

"Your night with the zucchinis in Jackson's backyard does not count," Luke retorted.

"I have slept outside with someone."

"Who?"

"None of your business," Lorelai crossed her arms in front of her. It felt good there was still something he did not know about her.

"Tell me!" Luke asked. "Who was it?"

"That's not important." Lorelai shot him a sheepish smile, which she knew would annoy him.

She was right with her assumption because Luke started to poke her with his fingers in the side, so she would start talking. She wiggled under his touch, trying to push him away. It was a playful behavior. The mood had definitely shifted, when he hovered above her, both of them a little out of breath. He asked, "What about now?"

She looked up at him, getting where he was heading with this question. Their position was promising and she was about to give in, but then decided against it. She wouldn't break her rules so fast. "Are things resolved between us?"

"Not exactly," Luke sighed.

"Besides, the motel room does look like the scenery of a very dreadful murder and not the place for some lovemaking."

Luke looked disappointed, but moved away, settling on his side of the bed again, facing in her direction though. Lorelai also turned around, and looked at him, informing him, "I booked a room in a very nice hotel close to where we have our goal. You see, I have some faith in us."

Luke remained silent, blinking a few times, probably just gaining control of his body and desire again.

"Do you?" She asked.

"It's gonna be hard, but yeah." He brushed his hands through his hair, and then slipped under the covers. He had changed into his pajamas already, while Lorelai was still dressed in her day clothes. She got off the bed to get ready for the night.

"Come here," Luke immediately said after she had slipped under the covers again with her pajamas on. He jerked his head.

"Luke, I told you-" Lorelai argued, but Luke shook his head.

"It's not that. Just-" He sighed and stretched his arm out. Lorelai hesitated, but scooted closer to him, her head coming to rest on his shoulder. They stayed like that for a couple minutes, Luke smoothing over her arm while she was settled against his side. She even dared to close her eyes and let go for a moment. All the problems in her life and her worries concerning the last weeks floated away for a short time.

Eventually, she brought her arm around his torso, which made Luke exhale and the next thing Lorelai noticed was Luke pressing a kiss on her forehead. They were both relaxed now, for the first time in a long time. Tomorrow still could not come soon enough though, but at least for now they were on good terms. This last evening felt way better than the previous one.

* * *

That was the first kiss for this fanfic so far. I know it was just a kiss on the forehead, but still. It's something, right?

If you need a reminder which girl on the trip was which, I will post a pic on my tumblr (jj-heart) later, so check that out if you're interested. Also, I didn't come up with the names on my own. I looked them up on IMDb, but their characterization is completely my take. And yes, we will meet all of them again later on.

Thank you for reading and please let me know what you think. (:


	5. First Day

**Chapter 5: First Day**

The mood was good when they started to get their stuff ready for their second attempt to start the "Wild" trip. Talking about the ground rules and being close, helped to ease the tension, they talked non-stop while getting ready, even making jokes and bickered back and forth. It felt like a day before they started to have issues, and it assured Luke that despite everything, which had happened they still could be them. They still could be a happy couple, which worked well together.

Before they would leave the motel room this time for good and leave for the point, where they would enter the trail, Lorelai asked Luke to take a photo of her, holding her phone in his direction. She wanted to document how she looked like before the trail turned her into a different person. Luke expected them to look dirtier, as well as toned from the sun, and maybe there would be a bruise here and there. 21 days in the wild would leave certainly an impression in some way.

Luke took a few pictures of her, hoping he could meet her high standards of getting the right angle and lighting to make her look extra well. She posed like a pro, turning sideways so Gary could show off his good side too. He rolled his eyes, but she was too caught up with handling the weight on her shoulder to call him out on that.

When she was done accessing the photos, she opened the camera app on her phone again and snatched a few pictures of Luke too. He complained about it, but Lorelai hardly ever listened to his objections.

Eventually, Lorelai wore him down that taking a picture of the both of them in one picture was necessary too. Luke stepped up to Lorelai, knowing that she would want to take one of those selfies she liked sending to other people so much. She had trained him over the years, instructing him where to look and how to tilt his head so the selfie would be decent. His premise was to better go with the flow than making the process of picture taking unbearable when he didn't act to her way.

"A goose face?" He asked.

The laughter, which followed his proposal was so loud, it hurt him in the ears. She was laughing so hard that she had to hold her stomach, which was apparently hurting from laughing so uncontrolled; the laughs were coming out in puffs.

Luke instantly knew he got it wrong and he tried correcting his utterance. "Chick face?" He grimaced. "That doesn't sound right either."

"It is a bird," Lorelai confirmed, patting his arm. "But let's just keep it simple and smile. We'll have plenty of opportunities to take a duck face selfie."

"I knew it was a bird," Luke smirked right into the camera as Lorelai took a photo. He then watched her pack the phone safely side pocket of her backpack. She wrapped it in a plastic bag, in case it would rain or Gary would fall into some water. The phone was her most precious thing on the trail, other than her pillow with owls on it.

When they arrived at the trail, again a park ranger was standing in front of the crowd of hikers. Luke noticed it was different park ranger this time around, but Luke couldn't catch a proper look at him because Lorelai dragged him to the women she had met last night, and introduced him to Tracey, Allie, Brenda, and Ellory. All of them looked at him with a big smile on their face, and Luke wondered what Lorelai had told them about him. It was probably too much and judging by the looks and winks they were exchanging the information Lorelai had shared was too detailed for his taste.

He had no time to dwell on that fact because the park ranger started his little speech and gave them one last round of instructions. Their hiking permit had to be shown. Luke knew he had put that permit into a special place so it would be reachable in case it had to be shown. He wasn't sure anymore whether it was in one of the side pockets of his backpack or if he had put them in Lorelai's backpack. He put his backpack off his shoulders, so he could check the pockets again.

In the meantime, the other women were taking off, waving in his way, which he returned. Lorelai said after all that they should be friendly with them since there was the possibility of meeting them again. Lorelai also made her way towards the park ranger, starting to talk to him about whatever.

Luke couldn't care less since his main priority was to find their permits. He checked every single side pocket on his backpack. He found the first aid kit, the yellow package with a little goody he had put there for a special occasion, but not one of the six pockets contained the permits. In his inner eye, he saw the little green plastic folder where he had put the important stuff like his driver's license, some money, and his credit card, but he had no clue where he had placed it. Since it was something they wouldn't need on a daily basis it was not necessary to have it in the side pockets within reach. He checked the pocket on the top, but he was out of luck.

His next guess was to open the backpack, and then he remembered the little included bag on the inside, which he had found so handy in the first place. He had not regretted buying a new backpack when he learned about the improvements the backpacking industry had made. He found the green folder, closed the backpack again, and joined Lorelai by the park ranger.

When he came closer and was actually able to understand what she was saying to the park ranger, he heard her bargaining with him to let them in without their permits. She was doing a dance for him, and Luke rolled his eyes when she had put down the backpack, some things falling out of it. He smiled at her ridiculous attitude. That smile faded though when he heard her say, "Just imagine under all of this I'm really hot."

He cleared his throat, which prompted Lorelai and Luke turn their heads in his directions. Without a smile, he held up their permits, saying, "Here are our permits."

"Thanks. Enjoy your time," he said and watched as Lorelai put on her backpack again, grab the items, which had fallen to the ground and then go off to the trail.

Luke stayed behind a little, shooting the park ranger a dark glare, making sure he understood that the flirting would not get him anywhere. He clenched his jaw, and then followed Lorelai.

As soon as they were out of hearing distance and because they had agreed not to discuss anything with someone close by, Luke asked Lorelai, "Was that necessary?"

"What are you talking about?"

"The flirting!" Luke growled.

"Oh, Luke." Lorelai sounded amused by his discomfort. "I do it all the time. No harm, no foul."

"What?" Luke knew Lorelai enjoyed the flirting. He always assumed it was just with him, but apparently, he was not the only one, who could experience her flirting. That was news to him.

"It's something I do." Lorelai shrugged, but her shoulders didn't move too much under the weight of her backpack. "I discovered if you're nice to people they will be nice to you too."

Luke looked at her with his jaw dropped, which made Lorelai accuse him, "Don't act like you don't do it!"

"No, I don't," Luke pointed out. "Why would I? I'm not interested in picking up another woman."

"I'm not interested in picking up another man either, it's just fun," Lorelai assured him. "I'm boosting my ego. Calm down, it's not like he's my type."

"Not your type?"

"A little too young, maybe, but he doesn't need to know."

"I can't believe this!"

"Relax!" Lorelai met his gaze and shot him a smile, which normally would to the trick. but the smile was too playful in his opinion. He had to pursue this conversation. Now was the time for it. They were finally on the trail, where they had agreed to talk about things like that.

"How often do you do this?" Luke asked while they were walking next to each other.

"Don't know. Whenever I need to." She raised an eyebrow, instead of shrugging this time. There was no point of shrugging with a backpack on her shoulders.

"But we're-" Luke stuttered, gesturing between the two of them. Why Lorelai would flirt when they were in a relationship was out of his mind. That was something, which never had crossed his mind.

"Yeah, I know."

"How can you go around and flirt with people when we're in a relationship?" Luke, finally, was able to voice his concern.

"Why wouldn't I?" Lorelai snapped. "Being a little friendly to someone does not mean I cheat on you!"

"This is inappropriate!"

"No, it's not!"

"Tell me what would you have done when he went a little further with your suggestion? Accepting your offer?" Luke asked. He was genuinely interested how far she would have taken this.

"You would have interrupted us anyway." Lorelai waved it off, escaping the question.

Luke, however, urged her to answer, "What if I'm not there? How far do you go with those flirts?"

Lorelai bit her lip, but then said slowly, laying emphasis on the words. "I would never cross the line."

"What line?"

"I'm not cheating on you," she clarified. "That much you have to trust me!"

"I have a little trust issue ever since you didn't tell me you went to therapy by yourself," Luke hissed.

"Look at us! 10 minutes on the trail and we're already screaming at each other. That must be a new record." Lorelai said frustrated, heavily panting, not digging deeper into the topic they had been discussing. She was again avoiding him.

"I guess so," Luke muttered, staring at her, but she didn't say anymore, which made Luke turn around and walk his way. She was certainly not forthcoming on this. The conversation was over and they could hike a little silence. He didn't look back; he couldn't look at her right now. Not after the direction, the talk had taken.

However, she called after him, "Luke, wait! That's too fast."

"Better hurry up then because that's the pace I set," he yelled back, not turning around.

"No! Luke, this is not how it is going to work. We agreed. We'll stick together. You promised me!"

"Can't remember a promise like that," he shot back as he turned around to see her almost 30 yards behind him.

"It was a rule you agreed to."

"Fine." He kicked a stone on the path, waiting for her to catch up with him.

He let her go in front of him, let her set the pace, but they didn't talk. They hiked in silence, taking their surroundings in. The scenery was beautiful and definitely worth a trip. It soothed his temper, and he could not stay angry when the trees were old, the mountains high and the air fresh.

Luke wasn't even annoyed when they stopped ever so often for Lorelai to catch her breath of adjusting her backpack. The air was thinner in the height after all; some acclimating had to be done, even for him. His body was not used to this motion too and had to adjust to it.

Not only Lorelai was struggling with the weight and the unusual amount of walking, but Luke too. It also gave him some troubles, but not as much as it was giving Lorelai.

At one point, she was reaching for her water bottle with just one hand. It was stored on the side, but she couldn't quite grip it, the angle was off. There was no other option for her than to take the backpack off, but Luke knew once it was off she would struggle to put it on again. He stopped her from unfastening the buckle across her chest and freed the water bottle out of the side pocket. He gave her the violet bottle and encouraged her with a hand wave to drink.

Her breaths got steadier again, as Luke placed the bottle back into the pocket. Then he gave her a few nuts to eat and made sure she was doing OK, keeping her blood sugar level on a good level.

All of that happened in silence. Lorelai was still concentrating on getting her feet one in front of the other while managing the weight on her shoulders and back, while Luke made sure she didn't trip or stayed alive in general. Even their lunch was spent in silence, taking their time to let their bodies relax. Though it seemed tempting to take the shoes off, Luke knew better and kept them on.

The pain Lorelai experienced made her speechless. Luke would have never thought that would happen, In contrary, based on the stories he was told from giving birth to Rory he had expected her to be vocal about the pain she was going through and cursing like an old sailor. He had assumed she would do the same here, but her mouth remained closed. Apparently, all the words got stuck in her head and didn't leave her lips.

They had been hiking for another hour after their lunch break, when eventually some words left her mouth, "I have to use the bathroom."

"OK," Luke said, stopping, so she could take care of that need.

"But how will-", Lorelai asked, but Luke cut her off.

"You know how. It was in the book."

The argument they had over Lorelai using the bathroom, as she liked to put it, was Luke's biggest nightmare. He thought she had read the book, really read it and understood what actions and tasks needed to be done in order to survive on the trail.

However, Lorelai acted just the way he thought she would without any preparation and prior knowledge. The smallest tasks like peeing turned into a big dramatic scene with her. Being dramatic was clearly Lorelai's thing, without a doubt. And under normal circumstances, Luke would somehow enjoy it, but in this situation, it annoyed him that she acted like all this was news to her.

Ultimately, she managed to pee, asking him to turn around, even though he had seen her naked thousands of times, but she argued that this was a different situation and not flattering at all. He complied, so he wouldn't cause any more drama and hoping this would cut their peeing stop shorter.

The moans, shrieks, and complaints followed nevertheless and Luke reassured himself by thinking she would get used to it. In a few days, peeing in the wild would not be a problem any longer. It was something, which needed time to getting used to.

It also needed some adjustments to Luke to experience Lorelai being quiet. They spent walking in silence, and Lorelai even kept her distance from him, only replying to what was really necessary. They didn't chit-chat most of the time; caught up with enduring the pain, which was caused by the weight of their backpacks.

The animals they came across didn't make it any easier and kept them on their toes. The insects, yet annoying were not as much of a problem than the bigger animals, especially the ones, which were hyped to be the dangerous ones.

"There's a snake," Lorelai shrieked, suddenly stopping in her step.

"Where?" Luke frowned, he didn't know where to look and scanned his surrounding, but all he could see was the brown ground, covered with the first leaves, which had fallen to the ground.

"There." She pointed to her left, and grimaced, bringing her hands to her face in disgust. "The tail is so long."

Luke looked at the spot she had pointed, but still, he couldn't see the snake in question; all he could see besides the leaves was a stack of branches. "It's only a branch. No snake close."

"No, look, that is a snake for sure." She leaned forward, trying to inspect the spot in question and then jumped back. "It moved."

With a sigh, he stepped to her side and when the branch indeed moved he finally believed Lorelai's words.

"What do we do? What do we do?" Lorelai asked, jumping up and down.

"Just go," Luke sighed, pushing Lorelai away. "We let the snake alone, and then the snake will leave us alone. Alright?"

Eventually, Lorelai nodded, and took big strides away from the snake, following Luke along. While she sort of freaked when she had seen the snake, she was reacting in a completely different way when they spotted the first squirrel on the trail. There were exclamation and some giggling involved, when the squirrel jumped from one tree to the other.

It was one of the highlights of the whole day; the rest of the day was spent experiencing the pain again. They hiked a good seven miles that day, which given by the pace they walked was quite some accomplishment.

They found a nice place to set up their tent for their first night in the wilderness. Before their setup for the night, they took their time to drink water, and recharge for a moment. But Luke knew better than to rest when there was still so much to do.

At first, Lorelai watched Luke unpack his backpack to fetch the tent out of it and he thought she would let him do this on her own, but to his surprise, she got up to her feet and offered help. Even though they had practiced setting up a tent at home, Lorelai behaved like she did it the first time ever. After all, it was only her second time. Luke should have known better. One time was never enough.

It was almost like a comedy bit though how Lorelai tripped over the tent's ropes and managed to get caught in between them. She needed Luke to rescue her. He did his best to fight the laugh and the comment, which was sitting on the tip of his tongue.

Preparing food, however, Lorelai left to Luke, who set up the camping cooker and boiled some water, which would be mixed with one of the instant dishes they had brought along. The food didn't taste bad, but not good either. Judging by Lorelai's face expression, she shared the opinion. Only 20 more dishes with the same taste. Maybe the instant mac and cheese, which they would have at a later time, would surprise them in the end.

During dinner, they didn't say much either just like while hiking. Lorelai could help but point out, "This feels like a coffee time. A real cup of coffee."

Luke chuckled; he was prepared to hear more of these kinds of comments along the way. Real coffee and Lorelai were separated for three weeks, only leaving her to drink the instant coffee, which she would use in the morning to get her system started.

After having dinner, brushing their teeth and storing away the food or any other product, which could attract bears, they laid down in their sleeping bags. Lorelai in her brand-new orange sleeping bag, and Luke in his old army green one.

Lying down was good, yet painful. Everything hurt. From the toes, which were pressed into an unusual shoe to the forehead, which had gotten sunburnt by being exposed to the sun all day long. They should have re-applied the sun blocker; they had sweat away all of it throughout the day. The muscles were aching, even though they had done some training for this.

The sleeping pat couldn't compare to a real mattress even though it had cost a fortune. The firm ground gave their backs enough support but not the right spot to make the tensed muscles relax. They were lying limp on their backs, unable to move, the thought of hiking again tomorrow was impossible to bear, even for Luke, who was, in general, looking forward to it.

He looked at Lorelai, whose eyes were as wide open as his, lying just like him on the back. Suddenly, she burst into laughter. It confused Luke what prompted her to laugh, so deep that her abs must be aching from that movement.

The absurdity of the situation washed over Luke too, which made him laugh too. He didn't think he could because he was too exhausted to move in any way. He turned his head in her direction and asked. "Why are we laughing?"

"Don't you think it's funny? We're here on the PCT. We are like two dead people in a tent god knows where and if a bear pops up we won't be able to run away because we're too exhausted," Lorelai gasped.

"We have the bear spray," Luke reminded her.

"That's out of reach." Lorelai held a hand before her mouth, to gain some control over her laughter. "Somewhere stored in that monster over there."

She pointed to her backpack. Even though she had given the backpack a nickname, Gary, she used another one for it, the same nickname Cheryl had used too. Luke sighed when he looked at the two packs. She was right with her observations. If a bear decided to come get them they would be easy targets.

"What a first day, huh?"

"Only 20 more to come," Lorelai said, smiling at him. At by that smile, Luke knew there were no hard feelings from their first fall-out in the morning. But right now, it was not the time to discuss that. The pain in their muscles consumed their thoughts and was the dominating issue of their first day. Even though they were finally on the trail, there was still no room for real discussions.

* * *

 _They are finally on the trial, yay! And Lorelai, of course, flirts with the park ranger, some of you guessed it right. Hopefully, you enjoyed this wild-ish chapter and you didn't mind it being more descriptive than the last chapters._

 _Anyway, thank you for reading and supporting this story, it means a lot to me. I hope I don't scare anyone off with this slow built-up, but since Lorelai and Luke are finally hiking, the discussing will take place soon. For now, I wish you all a nice weekend!_


	6. Pitfalls

**Chapter 6: Pitfalls**

The day before Lorelai had sweat a lot, more than she had expected to. Apparently, she had been dressed too warm, so she exchanged her long trousers for some shorts, but she kept the flannel on the top. Wearing socks for the second time in a row seemed crazy, but she wanted to avoid blisters at any costs, so she did it nevertheless. The disgust filled her anyway when she put them on and then put her feet into the big hiking boots.

Lorelai also ditched the beanie and put on a bandana, which made Luke moan since she had insisted on bringing three kinds of hats and wouldn't use one today.

The sun was shining bright, even in the early morning. Their next stage of the hike would take them even higher, which also meant there were less high trees, which would provide them with some shadow to hide from the sun. Lorelai made sure to apply sun blocker on her skin and made Luke apply some too. He wrinkled his nose when she worked the cream in on his face, paying extra attention to his nose, which had turned red from the day before.

That rough look suited him though, he still wore a flannel shirt; the sleeves were rolled up, showing off his strong arms. He was some long trousers and his blue signature cap on the head. The stubble was already showing, and Luke had made it clear to her that he would not shave on the trail. She had opposed, but he wouldn't listen. After all, he was just as stubborn as she was.

The hair-issue was revisited for lunch again. They found a little shady place. Lorelai was sitting on the ground, while Luke sat on his camping chair. They had eaten their food and they were just relaxing some more before they would carry on. The sweat was still sticking on them, and Lorelai dreamed of a shower, a refreshing cool shower, which would rinse off all the sweat and dirt of her. The last time she showered was yesterday morning, which in Lorelai's timeline was an eternity. She was pushing some hair out her face again, pulling it into a ponytail.

"Ugh. That long hair sucks. It sticks to my face, and it makes me hot and it's inconvenient," she complained and looked to Luke, who was sorting back some stuff into his backpack, which they had used to prepare lunch. It was the silverware and his Leatherman. A thought crossed her mind. She knew how she could get rid of the annoying hair right here and right now. "Gimme that knife, Luke."

"What for?" Luke frowned.

"I will cut my hair," she explained, trying to calm his nerves, which were probably alerted by her sudden interest in a knife. "I should have done it before coming here."

Luke shook his head, and said, "Not gonna happen."

"But the hair is too long. Just a few inches," she reasoned with him, but it had no use. Luke still insisted upon his prior answer.

"I like it like that," he said.

Lorelai rolled her eyes. It was not a secret how much Luke liked her with long hair. He played with them ever so often, burying his hands in them when he was kissing her. And she enjoyed how lovingly he patted her hair, and she certainly enjoyed how much he cared about these little things, but on the hike, different rules applied. Her hair would grow back in no time, it always did. "You'll survive," she said.

"No, it stays."

"Luke, I will go crazy if it stays like that," she stressed. She couldn't change the heat or the fact that the moving made her sweat, but she could change her hair, which was sticky and therefore reeking. She did not dare to think about the smell her hair would have once they had been hiking for three weeks, and not only two days, well one and a half really.

"You can't get any crazier," Luke deadpanned. And if he weren't out of reach she would have whacked his arm for saying that. He added, "And I won't listen to your whining that you cut it uneven or something."

"Then you go and cut it for me," she retorted. It was easier for him to cut her hair after all; he had a better perspective than she had, and with no big mirrors around she was not sure she could cut it evenly.

"And listen to your complaints that I did it wrong?" Luke crossed the arms in front of his chest. "No way! I won't be responsible for this."

"I can't leave it like that." Lorelai gestured towards her hair, in a messy ponytail and greasy all over the place. She didn't have to look at herself, but Luke had to stand to look at her looking like this. It was already a catastrophe, the thing atop of her head. To make her point, she added, "It's horrible."

"You don't need to win a beauty contest out here," Luke reminded her, joking, but she didn't allow any jokes when it came to her hair. Her hair was a serious business, the only business that mattered. Horrible hair could have a huge impact on her day. After all, it was called having a bad hair day for a reason. And the next three weeks were about to become a long bad hair week if she left them like that.

"Still," she pouted. If he was not willing to cut her for her, or giving her the knife, there was no way of getting her hair in order; it was a mess under the bandana, which she adjusted.

Their lunch break was over, and she was in a bad mood, which made the hiking even worse. The aching muscles made every step a small strain for her body. The pain and effort she had to put into walking straight on were slowly overshadowing her thoughts about her bad hair. In the beginning, she was still stressing about it, complaining, and whining, resolving a new idea she had come up with.

"I will cut my hair first thing when I come home," she told Luke, who smirked at her, telling her that they would see about that. He was not convinced about her actions, too fond of her long hair, but her mind was set on that decision. She was seeing herself already sitting at the hairdresser, saying goodbye to the dry and unhealthy ends of her hair. In three weeks, she could fulfill that dream, for now, all she had to do was set one foot before the other, hiking foot after foot, yard after yard and mile after mile.

The pain in her body overtook her thoughts again; there was nothing else, what she could concentrate on. Sometimes, she lifted her head to look at the scenery, but most of the times she stopped to do so. Hiking took all of her attention away.

That was why she didn't know how it happened exactly. All she knew was that she was walking one second and the next second she was lying on the ground, falling to her knees, which started hurting at the same time.

She didn't know what made her lose her balance. Maybe it was a stone she had missed. Maybe loose shoelaces were the reason for her tripping. Or maybe the wind blew her over. She didn't know how it happened, but the pain she felt in her knees made her forget it anyway. Why and how was not important, when another kind of pain filled her body.

Lorelai unclasped the backpack to give into the hurt and not the weight on her back. As she looked at her bloody knees, she regretted ditching the long pair of trousers for the shorts in the morning. Without protection, her knees could be more easily bruised and hurt. Falling down on stones hurt a lot.

Her eyes filled up with tears, and because they were there, to begin with, she shed them too. She started crying, holding her hands in front of her face.

"Are you alright? Did you hurt yourself that bad?" Luke asked, in a soft voice. He did not sound worried, or at least he was good at hiding it.

Lorelai shook her head. Her knees hurt, but not as much as if she could not handle it. She had been through worse and that's why she didn't understand why she felt so helpless, why she would not get up and walk on.

"Here, let me have a look at it," Luke said, placing a hand on her shine, right under her wounds. Soon she could feel water on her skin, which made her take in a harsh breath of air. Washing out the wound, always burned. She let Luke take care of her injury, while she wept quietly.

"What was I thinking?" She blurted out. "Hiking? That ain't me."

"Lorelai." Luke sighed. He had put a band-aid on both of her knees. They had been taken care of. She no longer felt the pain in them, but the ache in her body overtook again, filling her with doubt.

"I can't do this anymore. Everything hurts and I reek. And I just wanna go home and lie down."

"We're not giving up now," Luke said, shaking his head to everything she suggested.

"Why not?"

"We've been on the trail for two days. That's not even trying," Luke argued.

"Not trying would be no being here at all." Most people she knew would not even think of coming here in the first place. Making the trip all the way to California was one big accomplishment by itself.

"You've been through worse and didn't give up then," Luke reminded her, but even though he was right with that, she did want to relive horrible situations anymore, especially when she could help getting into those.

"But this isn't me, Luke. Nature?" She asked; desperate laughter mixed with cries. "Hell, no."

"We're not taking the easy way out."

"That's not an easy way," Lorelai hissed at him. "I pushed through so much. I peed outside. I slept outside. I saw snakes. I drank water that wasn't in a bottle before. I've done the nature stuff. I've seen it all and I don't like it. I'm done with it, I want out!"

"I told you it wasn't you," Luke retorted. "But your mind was set. And now we're on a goddamn trail in California and I'm telling you we won't leave. We will go back to Connecticut in three weeks as planned and then you can tell anyone how brave and strong you were and that you accomplished something you never thought you would do. We will not go back and let you tell a story in which you gave up, in which you gave in some weak moment. This is nothing but a weak moment. This distinguishes a warrior from a quitter, and I've known you long enough to know you're definitely not the later. Dry your tears, get up and then let's go."

Luke's words left an impression, the tears stopped immediately, it was probably the shock of Luke's sudden outburst. Effective, yet unexpected. He had gotten up and he was holding a hand in her direction to help her to her feet. The speech he had given her blew her mind, pushing away any doubts she had been feeling just minutes ago. Now, she felt empowered.

She took his hand and with his help, she got up again. He also helped her with getting the backpack on again, and within a minute after his speech, they were off to hiking. Again, Luke would let Lorelai lead the way, letting her set the pace, which was slow, but at least they were moving. Slow progress was still progress.

When Luke decided they had managed enough miles for the day, Lorelai was relieved. She let the backpack fall down to the ground, not even saying sorry to Gary for acting so carelessly with him and then let herself fall down next to him. It felt good being released of the weight and it also felt good sitting, not moving a single bit. She removed the bandana off her head and watched Luke set up the tent and take care of the cooking. Her weak 'thanks' did not do Luke's action and taking care of everything justice, but it was all she was able to utter.

She gained some more energy once she was fed and the sugar made its way into her blood. It was probably the sugar rush, which made her stand up quickly after dinner; her legs were eager to walk even though they had been moved all they long. She had expected her muscles to be wobbly or tried, but standing was not too bad after all.

Her head cleared with every step she took, breathing in the fresh air of the mountains, the pain in her body was washing away, not taking up all of her thoughts. Today had been a dreadful day, but the scenery she could look at, really look at and not just register it while she walked through the pain, was breathtaking. The tree-covered mountains were lingering so high, she felt so small standing there. The sun was still there, but making its way to the other side of the planet.

Lorelai watched the vista and the sunset that was happening right in front of her, while Luke took care of their dirty dishes from dinner. He didn't mind doing so; at least that was what Lorelai thought. She appreciated it that he didn't push her, giving her space and accepting that she wanted to some time to herself. She didn't have to tell him off, her actions spoke louder than any words could ever do.

What was so fascinating about this particular sunset, she didn't know. She had seen others before, but she never was in the mountains. In those mountains here. Here at that time of her life. A time of her life, which she had to spend without a father. There was no father in her life anymore.

That realization washed over her. She no longer had a father in her life and she missed him. She missed him, even though they had shared a complicated relationship. That didn't change the fact that he was her father after all.

Maybe Richard wouldn't have liked the sunset and the vista at first. Lorelai did not take him for a nature person, who could be impressed by the marvel of something so ordinary as a sunset. There was a sunset every day, but, eventually, it would have brought a lighter mood to Richard too; Lorelai was sure about that since it had made her easier as well. It was unexpected. Maybe they would have shared a moment here, just watching the sunset, for once not dwelling on the past's mistakes.

They hardly ever did that. Their mistakes and disappointments had always been sitting between them. Between all of them, Lorelai and her parents. Most of the time even between Rory too, who couldn't get to know her grandparents properly for the first 16 years of her life.

Now, Lorelai would give anything to just have one more day with her father. Just one more hour. One more minute to say goodbye and to tell him that he was a great man. He deserved to know that, but she would never be able to tell him because he was gone. All that was left for her to do was to accept that fact, even if it seemed impossible. People before her have managed to do so, there was no reason for her to fail at this: at accepting the loss of a loved one. And yes, she had loved her father, despite all of his flaws.

The sunset turned the sky in red and pinks and eventually, there was only orange left fading to a blue. The darkness took over and washed the day and all his sweat and pain away. There had been plenty of both. The darkness, however, did not scare away the thoughts in Lorelai's mind. The darkness and the stars, which were appearing in the night sky let Lorelai sink into her thoughts about her father even deeper, making her sad and lonely. She put her arms around herself, the night brought the chill too, and the thin plaid shirt she wore was no longer enough to keep her warm.

Eventually, she started shivering. She wasn't sure which caused the shiver and the chill running down her spine. It could be the cold or the thoughts about her father. Her best guess was a combination of both.

Lorelai bit down on her lip, staring at the vista. She took it in, all of it. She was unable to move. Unable to get another layer of clothing, even though she was shaking by now. How long she would be able to last in the cold, she had no clue, but her feet would not move because her gaze would not avert from the view in front of her. The wide space was too fascinating.

However, it was not necessary to get another layer of clothing herself because suddenly a voice behind her asked, "Do you want me to get your jacket?"

She turned her head over her shoulder to find Luke standing behind her. Apparently, he was finished with the cleanup. She had lost all sense for time. She had no clue how long she had been standing her, taking the vista in, but Luke had taken care of all the tasks, which needed to be done.

For a moment, as she stood there, she had forgotten he was still there with her. She was so focused and caught up with her own business that Luke and her responsibility on this trip had slipped her mind. She had felt alone watching the vista, but she was not alone after all.

She was never alone; neither on this trip nor in her life. There was no need for her to deal with her problems and concerns on her own. Luke was always there, taking care of her, taking care of all the things she couldn't take care when she was busy feeling the pain.

He had been there to take care of her mother's house whilst she had been taken care of her grieving mother. He had kept the household up, had fed Paul-Anka, had made sure Michel had known she wouldn't be coming to the inn for a couple of days because she had been busy grieving and organizing yet another funeral for the Gilmore family. He had picked up Rory from the airport and he had driven her to the airport after the wake too. He had prepared the food, which she would not touch. He had kept things running while she had been sorting everything else out.

Lorelai cleared her throat because she had not spoken in a while and a lump had formed in her throat. With a weak voice, she suggested, "Why don't you just hold me and keep me warm?"

She bit her lip and looked him straight in the eye, watching him as he decided what do to. He hesitated and he had the right to do so. There hadn't been much body contact on this trail and this occasion seemed random. She encouraged him with a small smile; just the right corner of her mouth lifted. She held her breath, waiting for his decision. She waited for his arm to be finally wrapped around her. She needed the strong arms, which kept her up. She needed his body warmth against her cool back.

When he didn't move, she exhaled and turned her head in frustration towards the vista again. She didn't want him to see her cry, even though he had probably caught the tears already filling her eyes before. She tried holding back the tears; she tried refraining from making a sniffling sound, which could indicate her hurt to him.

Before she could fight any of these signs of her hurt feelings, Luke had his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her close against his chest.

It was so sudden Lorelai's breath got caught in her throat, but it didn't stop her from gripping his arms tightly, drawing him closer and closer to her. She wanted to be surrounded by him, totally enveloped in his arms, supported by his strong arms, and, finally, she released the breath that she had held. Her hands clung even tighter to his arms, digging her fingers into his skin. Her grip might leave a bruise, but Luke would never know if these bruises were from her or were caused by an incident on the trail. She kept finding bruises all over her body even though she couldn't remember where they came from.

Even though she was in Luke's arm and she was warming up because of his body-heat, she started to shiver again. The shivering merged into real shaking; all her limbs were suddenly contracting. She didn't know what was giving her such a chill, which gave her goosebumps all over her body. It could be the chill of the evening after all.

Or it could be the thrill of excitement of being close to Luke; the feeling of his arms pressed so tightly around her middle, the feeling of his chest rising up and down against her back, the feeling of his breaths close to her ear.

Lorelai allowed herself to be weak again, and let herself fall. She gave into the tears, which had been creeping up on her. They rolled down her cheeks, and Luke was there to catch her when her knees gave in. He was there to whisper soothing words into her ear, kissing her hair, "I've got you."

These words made Lorelai sob even harder. Of course, he had got her. He always had her back. He always did, and how could she not acknowledge that. She could count on him in every single situation. Even when he was mad at her, he was there to catch her. He would always be there. There was no escaping from that.

"I will never leave." His words of comfort matched her thoughts. She felt the urge to tell him he was reading her mind. She wanted him to know that she was thinking just along his thoughts. She wanted to make sure he knew she knew all of this, all of what he said.

Because no words left her lips, she started nodding. She was letting him know without uttering any words. By nodding, she told him that she got what he said; that he always had her back. And she was so damn happy about that.

Sometimes no words were necessary to communicate with each other. Sometimes, watching the night win over the twilight was enough interaction. It was Lorelai's duty to break the ice and start a conversation after all. Eventually, she calmed down and Luke's embrace loosened a bit, giving her the space she needed to take the deep breaths she was taking. But he stayed with her, apparently sensing that she needed the comfort he was so willingly giving to her.

"I need to call my mother," Lorelai managed to say eventually. She was surprised by that sudden realization. After all, however, it was not the first realization of the day, but it seemed as out of the ordinary as the realization that she missed her father so dearly.

"Not now," Luke whispered. "It's already late on the East Coast. Tomorrow morning will do."

Again, all Lorelai could do was nod. Luke was right again. Luke was always right. She understood how lost she would be without him. This whole day would have been a disaster if he had not been there.

She could no longer imagine a life without him. The nine years had made her dependent on him, the last two decades had made her dependent on his coffee and his cooking skills; there was not escaping from him. And on a bad day like this, she appreciated his presence in her life even more and she valued the strong arms, which kept her upright.

Lorelai stayed a little longer wrapped in his arms, but eventually, let go of them. Her eyes were shut longer than they were open gazing at the vista, which had faded into a dark mass anyway. She couldn't differ a tree from a stone anymore; it all looked the same.

She stepped out of his arms, smiling and brushing her hand over his shoulder as she turned around to make her way to their tent. She wanted to get ready for sleep. Today had been a rough day, and all Lorelai wanted was to leave it behind her. Tomorrow would be a new day, a better day. A day, in which she would hopefully not give into the weakness.

However, the day started with tears when she called her mother from the phone. It had taken her a good ten minutes to find a spot where there was enough cell reception for her to make the call in the first place, but as soon as she had reached Emily, she told her a story about Richard. One, which she had never shared with anyone, not even with Rory. It was a secret story of her dad, which finally reached the surface. It mended things with her mother. That story made things between her mother and her good again. It was so easy to solve things.

After the phone call, hiking along the trail was so much easier. She was feeling relieved because things between her mother and her were resolved. A huge load had been taken off her shoulders; her baggage was getting smaller. One big issue had been dealt with. Only two days on the trail and with one of the people she had been fighting with had forgiven her. Those words of forgiveness had not been uttered, but her mother's "Thank you, Lorelai" was forgiveness enough.

Settling things was not hard after all. She had no doubt about going on this trip anymore. It was not a bad idea. In contrary, it was a good idea. It was exactly what she needed to get her life in order. She felt like she could conquer it all. Especially, since Luke had her back and would always help get out of the mess.

Even though, the hiking helped her getting big stuff in order. Her mind was occupied with it and it overshadowed the little things she needed to take care of, like taking the anti-baby-pill. She had forgotten to take in the evening, too caught up with dwelling in the sadness, experiencing that kind of epiphany concerning her parents. She realized only a few days later, but with the rules Luke and she had agreed on, the pill was just dead weight, which she would get rid off at the next possible opportunity. Cheryl Strayed had ditched the condoms and she would ditch the pills.

Finally, Lorelai would embrace the wild life properly, she was sure about it. Hiking could only get better after this.

* * *

 _Lorelai hit a hard time here, but at least she's on good terms with Emily again. And let's not forget how supportive Luke was throughout all of this. I'm curious what you think. I hope you liked it and thanks for reading. (:_


	7. Partners

**Chapter 7: Partners**

Luke would have never thought a breakdown would be a good thing. But ever since Lorelai had suffered through one, she seemed like an entirely different person, more positive and full of energy. Her hiking pace increased, and she seemed more content than he hadn't seen her in a long time.

At first, Luke had refrained from asking her what was the deal with her nightly meltdown. His main priority had been to be there for her, and catch her at her weakest. If there was one thing he wanted to prove to her then it was that he would never leave, and would always have her back.

However, he also gave her the space she needed. When she came back from a call with her mother and her eyes were reddened, a clear signal she had been crying, he asked her, "Are you alright?"

She nodded in response, reaching for her already packed backpack for the day.

"Ready?" He gave her the option to take the chance of talking to him about it, but again she nodded to his question. Not giving him more information. Whatever she had gone through while talking to her mother was something she had to process by herself first.

Even though she was not talk-active while they hiked that day, she seemed more energetic, more content with herself being here in the wild. Ever so often, they stopped to admire the beauty of the landscape. Lorelai even took her phone out to snatch photos. Not only of the vista but of him too. Or of their food. She would take pictures of ordinary stuff like setting up the tent or where they would get fresh water. She started to document the trip, and Luke enjoyed every bit of it. He even agreed to take a duck face selfie with her. This was just like he had imagined a trip to the wild would be like with Lorelai.

They had eaten dinner, and their dishes were cleaned off, but they still remained sitting outside of their tent. Lorelai had her phone in her hands, while Luke read through the hiking guide. He was happy to notice they had managed to hike a good ten miles today, slowly increasing their pace. They had to make up for the lost miles from the prior days, in which they were not able to do as many miles as they ought to do in order to reach their goal within the three weeks they had planned.

Luke laid the guide aside, eventually, but Lorelai was still busy on her phone. He cleared his throat. "Who are you texting with?"

"Oh, nobody." She grimaced.

"Nobody who?" Her answer sounded like she was hiding something.

"There is no one I can send these photos to. I have this whole nature stuff that I'm surprisingly excited about and I can't share it with anyone. Michel would not care about this. My mom would not care either. Sookie is unreachable, and Rory-" She shrugged. "I have all these photos, but no one to share them with."

"You'll show them eventually," Luke assured her. She would be able to work everything out. He was sure about it.

"Yeah." Lorelai sighed.

"So, basically, your phone time is useless?" Luke checked. Their whole conversation of cutting Lorelai's use of her phone was for nothing when she had no one to reach out to.

"Basically, yes," she laughed, pulling a strand of hair behind her ear as she lowered her head. The first strands always fell loose, even though the rest of if was in a braided plait. Lorelai claimed it was the only hairstyle she could wear her hair in, and Luke did not object to that.

Luke took one last deep breath. He wanted to take advantage of her good mood and asked about her meltdown, he wanted to be involved in her thoughts. In his opinion, he had given her enough space to figure it. "Lorelai?"

"Yeah?" She lifted her head to meet his gaze again. There was still a smile on her lips. She was probably expecting him to have another comeback.

"What was the call with your mother about? Did the two of you make up?" He gulped, bracing himself for her reaction. He had no idea whether she would be forthcoming or rather act defensively.

At first, Lorelai's mouth dropped open slightly, then she pressed her lips against each other. It almost seemed like she was chewing on them while she debated how she should respond to Luke's question. Eventually, she said, "Actually, we did."

"Really?" Luke was not only surprised that Lorelai had made up with Emily, but also he was surprised he did not need to push her for an answer.

"Yeah," Lorelai shook her head in disbelief, narrowing her eyes. "I told her a story about my dad, and then she thanked me. My mother thanked me, Luke! Not just giving a polite 'thanks', which means nothing, but it was a real 'thank you', from the bottom of her heart. I think we finally came to an understanding. I get where she is coming from. Losing my father was hard on the both of us, but now, I think we can move on."

Not only Emily and Lorelai were able to move on, but also Luke and Lorelai on the trail; their hiking pace increased the next day even more. Apparently, both of their legs had adjusted to the height and the distance, which they had to hike every day. The fact that they were using up a lot of their supplies made it easier too. It was still a couple of days away until they would reach their first resupply point, and until then the weight of the backpacks would decrease.

Luke was happy about that. His back was feeling every pound, which was relieved of his shoulders. His whole back and shoulders were tense and sore from the weight, more than he had expected it. Every day it hurt a little more, but he pushed through it, concentrating rather on his surroundings than on the pain. He would not give into it; this was just his old body playing a trick on him. In a couple of days, it should be better.

In the afternoon, they met the first person ever since they had started hiking. Even though people flooded the PCT since the success of Cheryl Strayed's novel and the film adaption with Reese Witherspoon, the trail still seemed deserted.

The person, who they met was one of the women Lorelai had met before even starting the hike. Allie was happy to see them both and was quickly engaging Lorelai into a conversation about their trail experiences so far.

"What happened to your ankle?" Lorelai gasped when she saw a bandage on her foot.

"Oh, nothing," Allie said, waving it off. "I didn't see a rock and then I fell. Nothing to worry."

"Does it hurt?" Luke asked.

"Not so much anymore. The pills help," Allie answered, a smile on her face. Luke was not sure if he believed her, but it was obvious she didn't want to talk about it anymore. "We are all a little damaged, I would say."

"All?" Lorelai interjected.

"The other girls and I are meeting every evening. It's just two more miles from here. You can join us if you want," Allie suggested.

"Sure, we'll think about it," Lorelai quickly said, glancing to Luke.

After some more catching up, Lorelai and Luke resumed to their own hiking pace. It was the law of the trail to not be considerate at someone else's hiking pace, but minding only your own pace. Unless, of course, you were hiking in a group.

Even though Luke was not a fan of meeting up with the other girls and spend an entire evening with them, Lorelai wore him down eventually. Lorelai's persuading skills made him agree to the prospect of being the only man with five women around him. Luke didn't like being outnumbered. He didn't enjoy being the man in a hen party, so they could pick up on him.

He was right with his assumptions, he was not the slightest bit prepared for the kinds of question the other women asked him while eating dinner, all of them sitting together in a circle.

"So, Luke," Allie said. She was the one they had met on the trail earlier. "Lorelai told us you two are not married. How so?"

Luke almost choked on his food when hearing that kind of question, so straight-forward, he was surprised, shocked that a stranger could ask a question like that without even blushing or having second thoughts. The trail had its own rules after all.

He didn't have to answer himself because Lorelai jumped to his rescue, saying, "We decided marriage isn't for us. We don't need a piece of paper to assure us of our feelings towards each other."

Lorelai's answer made sense to him; it was that kind of deal they had struck a while ago. Living together, being in a relationship for the past nine years without any major bump on the way was enough proof to them being permanent, a piece a paper wouldn't change that.

The cross-examination was not over yet. This time it was Brenda, who asked, "Do you have kids?"

That question could be considered as a small talk question, but it acted as a way to fish for more details about their relationship. This time Luke answered, "We have kids. We both have a daughter, but no kids together if that's what you're asking."

"Oh."

There was a disappointed ring to Brenda's reaction, which made Lorelai explain a little more. "We have a dog though," she interjected. "His name is Paul-Anka."

"Odd name," Tracey chuckled.

"I didn't have a say in the name-giving," Luke threw in, lifting his hands in the air.

"Clearly," Tracey backed him up, rolling her eyes.

"Luke, you have no idea how to name a pet properly. Your naming skills are no good," Lorelai said, adding an eye-roll to mark her point.

"When have I ever named anything?" Luke asked, he really wanted to know. He could not remember one occasion when he would have named an item like Lorelai would do so often.

"That's the problem. You don't have enough experience to name things. Most people don't recognize how much practice it takes to come up with a suitable name for humans, animals, and items. Since I have more experience in that department than you, I am the official name-giver of the household," Lorelai argued. She tilted her head and gave him a taunting look, which challenged him to come up with some arguments himself.

"Appointing yourself the official name-giver doesn't automatically make you the better person to name others. It doesn't prove your naming skills. I mean you named your daughter after yourself. That's very creative."

"And your daughter is named after the month she's born in," Lorelai retorted.

"I didn't name her," Luke shot back. To Luke's surprise, it was fairly easy to win this argument.

Lorelai seemed startled; she took a moment to come up with a counter-argument, "You named your diner after yourself."

"Which is a very common custom in the in diner-industry. Right, guys?" Luke turned around to look at the other women sitting with them. They seemed clearly amused by Lorelai and his back-and-forth. Luke felt embarrassed for bickering like an old couple right in front of them, acting as some entertainment for the others.

Besides the smiles across the women's faces, they were also nodding towards his prior question. Ellory also said, "Fran's in Toronto is an institution. The best apple pie in town. I wish I could eat something else than this stupid soup."

"We told you shouldn't have drunk the water before boiling it," Brenda accused her, rolling her eyes.

"Should have I been like you? Fainting because of the heat?" Ellory shot back, an eyebrow raised.

"I recovered quickly," Brenda said, adjusting her glasses.

Luke was happy he got away to stay silent and was not forced to presume his argument with Lorelai. Instead, he carried on eating his dinner; he had neglected it far too long.

Lorelai must have felt embarrassed too because she also remained silent, only watching as the other women chatted back and forth. While they did so, Luke and Lorelai were exchanging glances, holding back their grins. Luke reached out to bump his fist playfully against Lorelai's knee, which made her flash him an actual smile.

After finishing his dinner, Luke said stood and announced, "I'm gonna lie down. You're coming?"

The second part was directed toward Lorelai, who answered, "I'm gonna stay out a little longer."

Luke nodded in response, understanding that she needed some girl time. He brushed his hand over her shoulder, as he turned to walk off to their tent, which they had set up earlier.

"Good night, hun," called after him, which brought a smile to his lips. He was glad he was facing away from the other women, so they wouldn't see it.

Meeting the other women was apart from their little interrogation surprisingly refreshing, but when Lorelai told him in the morning she had agreed to meet them again in the evening, he was quite surprised. He couldn't object though when she seemed so excited about it. The second evening with the other girls was far more comfortable than the first one. Luke grew to like Tracey, who seemed like the most laid back of them. However, when she suggested putting mud in their faces to keep the few insects away they had seen on the trail, he thought she was just as crazy as the others.

After spending the third night in a row with them, Luke could not take the girl gossip anymore. Since they had arrived at the agreed upon place first, Luke argued they should pick up their individual hiking pace again, which apparently was higher than the others.

Lorelai agreed to that, understanding where he was coming from. They needed some alone time again, but the odds were not in their favor. In the evening, they had met another couple, with whom they had connected right away, talking non-stop, exchanging about their trail experiences, that was why they decided to spend their dinner together.

While the women were refreshing themselves in the lake they had been camping at, Luke talked to the guy, whose name was Joshua. Luke was sorting through his backpack, when Joshua exclaimed, "Man, what else do you've got in that thing? Your pack is like Mary Poppins' bag. You keep fishing stuff out of there like there's no end to it."

"Uh, that's nothing." Luke waved it off, but suppressed a smile when Joshua had referred to his backpack as Mary Poppins. He wondered if that was the reason Lorelai had named it Mary or if it was just a coincidence.

"Seriously, how do you do it?" Joshua asked.

"Good packing strategy, I guess." Luke shrugged. To him, it was no magic how to pack a backpack in an efficient way to make room for all the items, which were needed on the trail.

"That's impressive that you two only travel with one backpack. How do you do it tough? After what time do you take turns? And does it help with the pain? Or do you wish you had two backpacks with you?" Joshua asked, watching carefully as Luke sorted through his backpack.

"We have two backpacks," he answered, frowning.

"You do? That can't be right. All the stuff you need is in that one." Joshua pointed to Luke's backpack. "What is the other one for? Decoration?"

"All that little stuff is in it. Some food too. Most of the clothes." Luke scratched his head for a moment.

"You mean that second pair of shirts, socks, and underwear as well as the jackets? Whereas in that one is like everything that you need and everything that's heavy."

"Well," Luke sighed. He had no clue how to respond to that.

"Why do you do that to your back?"

"Because," Luke trailed off. He had run out of arguments, and it was his disposition to get into a discussion with some strangers, who weren't his customers.

"I know that you try to protect your lady, but that ain't right, man, even if she gives you a nice little back rub in the evening. Better share the weight. She can take it."

All Luke did was nod. Joshua certainly had a point, and maybe it was time to bring that issue up with Lorelai. He didn't sleep well that night. Joshua's words were still floating through his head, but he decided to follow his advice and in the morning he addressed the backpack issue.

"Are Ernie and Bert fine?" Lorelai asked, bringing a hand to heart. Again she used different nicknames for the backpacks. Luke couldn't understand why. She had been so persistent about Gary and Mary, and now she was mixing things up again.

"Yeah, no need to panic," Luke assured her and explained the situation to her. At first, she was irritated, not getting what he was talking about. Then she was angry with him for not telling her earlier.

"Is that why Joshua and Jasmine left so bright and early, so I can't get mad at him?" Lorelai said as she crossed her arms in front her chest.

"The point is I need you to put these things into your backpack. We are a team. Partners do this for another." He narrowed his knees to look her straight in the eyes.

"Fine. I'll put it into Gary." Lorelai packed the extra baggage into her backpack and somehow managed to put it on. It all happened with a lot of moaning and groaning, but her moans were like a background noise to him on this trail. If she wouldn't complain, something would be wrong with her.

"I don't feel much of a difference," Lorelai said as she adjusted to the extra weight.

"I do." Luke chuckled as he fastened the clasp across his chest. He then stepped closer to Lorelai and nudged her in the bicep. "Lift your arm like that and now tense it."

A peak on Lorelai's biceps showed up. Luke poked his finger in it, to test how much it had grown over the last week. "That's why you don't feel a difference."

"How smug do you feel right now?" Lorelai said, tilting her head.

"On a scale from 1 to 10?" Luke shot back.

"Yeah, from 'not at all' to 'unbearable to hide'," Lorelai rephrased.

"10, definitely 10." He couldn't hide his relief and smirked at her.

"Thought so. I'm surprised by myself as well." She patted her shoulders and the straps of her backpacks.

"Not proud?" Luke interjected.

"Not yet. You don't count your chickens before they are hatched."

"You using that saying sounds wrong." His smile grew wider. He had the feeling this was going to be a very good day.

His feelings weren't misleading him; that particular day was good after all. They were passing by some really nice sites, and even though they didn't manage as many miles as the day before they still did well enough.

When they sat down for dinner, he was content with today's events and progress. He wanted to watch the water boil, and process today's impressions, however, Lorelai interrupted his train of thoughts with her whining, "God, my back hurts. All of my body hurts. I'm one big pain. There's nothing in my body that doesn't hurt."

Luke watched Lorelai as she tried to find a comfortable sitting position on the ground. She had folded her legs under her, then she had sat cross-legged, and now she was stretching the legs in front of her while leaning back on her hands. She stretched like a cat, but unlike a cat, she moaned and groaned with every movement.

"Stupid pillow." She threw that super light pillow with owls on it aside and got up, looking for something she could sit on. She paced back and forth, her back bent forward, voicing her muscles' pain with every step she took.

Luke sat comfortably in his chair. It was the first evening in a week that the pain he felt in his muscles was tolerable. The lighter backpack relieved him and made the hike easier. He enjoyed leaning back in his chair, but today was the first day he thought he could sit on the ground like all the other hikers did.

In the meantime, Lorelai yet abandoned another attempt to sit in a position, which apparently proved to be uncomfortable. Judging by her facial expression, Luke knew she was truly suffering, and that was something Luke couldn't take. Seeing Lorelai in pain was his weak point.

"Come, sit on the chair." He got up and gestured to the chair.

"No, you don't have to. Your back hurts too."

"It's just alright today. For the first time in over a week - thanks to you," he laid emphasis on his thanks. He was truly thankful for her understanding.

Lorelai's face melted in adoration for his words, the corners of her mouth lifting so her lips would stretch into a smile.

"So, come sit. It's the least I can do for you."

"Thanks." Lorelai flashed him a smile as she flopped onto the chair, her legs stretching wide from her. After she had relaxed for a moment, she added, "You should have told me right away that Mary was too heavy for you to carry."

"I thought I can handle it", Luke answered, shrugging her reproach off. He thought he could handle his backpack.

"There's no need for you to play the strong hero," Lorelai argued. "I mean, you are my hero anyway, you don't have to prove yourself."

"I'll remember that." He smiled at her. Her words only added up the content, which was washing him over him today.

When the water finally boiled, he poured it over some instant mac and cheese, which he was actually looking forward to eating. It was one of Lorelai's favorite dishes too, and he hoped he could distract her from the pain in her muscles by handing her dinner.

They ate in silence, just like they had done most of the evenings when they were alone on the trail. The longer they sat there and ate, the chattier Lorelai became, rehashing what they had seen today. They started a real conversation, not a forced one, which social obligatory forced them to because other people were present. They started a conversation because they wanted to, and it felt invigorating. Eventually, they talked about something else than hiking or the PCT at all, which felt even more stimulating.

"Luke?" Lorelai said after the conversation hit one of its natural pauses.

"Huh?"

Her voice seemed softer, almost tentative, when she spoke, "All these people kept asking if we're married."

"Huh." Luke wasn't sure where she was getting with this. He played it safe by not assuming something, which she might not even be getting at. He waited to see if she would presume or not.

"Yeah," her voice trailed off though.

Luke was hooked though; he wanted to see where she was heading with this in the first place. He tried to be as deliberate as he could be and said, "I suppose I get why people would assume we are."

"You do?" Lorelai looked up to meet his gaze.

Luke shrugged. "We're in a certain age."

"Ouch," Lorelai exclaimed, a frown forming on her face. Age was a sensitive topic for her.

"And in a relationship," Luke quickly added, which made Lorelai nodded. He shrugged again, saying, "They just put two and two together, I guess."

"Right," she said, suddenly looking at her lap.

"It bothers you that much that people assume we're married?" Luke asked.

"No, no, no, no, no," Lorelai repeated her answer often, which sent a clear message to Luke. He was relieved; she was apparently not completely opposed to marriage. "It's just-", Lorelai paused so she could shrug and sit straighter in her seat. "Why aren't you Mr. Lorelai Gilmore?"

"I'm taking your name?" Luke scoffed.

"I'm not taking yours," Lorelai shot back.

"Huh." Even though Lorelai without the Gilmore did not sound right to him either; he had thought if Lorelai would ever get married she could be persuaded to follow the traditional way. Apparently, he was wrong with his assumption. Although given by her previous life decisions she was everything but traditional.

"So?" Lorelai asked, "Why aren't we married?"

"Don't know." Luke wasn't sure whether he should shake his head or shrug in response. He did a little of both, which probably looked weird; it felt weird.

"It's not like we don't know how to get married," Lorelai continued. "We both have done it before. And we know how to get engaged. The ring must be somewhere in the house, right?"

Luke took in a sharp breath, and then confirmed her guess, "In the desk where the landline used to stand."

"What?" Lorelai gasped.

"In the drawer," Luke revealed and brought his right hand up to rub the back of his neck. The conversation made him uncomfortable.

"Why there?" Lorelai leaned forward and tilted her head to her right. She looked at him with anticipation, while her brow was furrowed.

"Figured it was a good as place as any."

"Right." There was a small grin playing on her lips when she leaned back again.

"The question is: do you want to be married?" Luke asked. It was a loaded question, and he was not sure whether he was ready to hear an answer to it.

Lorelai did not answer right away anyway, taking her time to figure out how to respond to it the best way. "I don't know what being married would change between us."

"Right, me neither." Luke swallowed.

"Maybe we're getting ahead of ourselves. We're here to discuss our issues, work on becoming partners, and here we are talking about marriage, which is way ahead of us. Don't you think so?"

"We can revisit the conversation." Luke hesitated. "I mean if you want to."

Lorelai's answer came immediately, quick like a shot; she did not need any time to think about it. It seemed like her mind was made up. There was no need to think it over. She didn't need to ponder the pro and the cons, she was sure about it, that was why answering was so easy. "I do."

Luke smiled. Not only was it that kind of answer he wanted to hear, but it was also the answer she would give in front of the altar someday if they ever decided to get married.

"I do too," he answered. There was no doubt about how good this whole day had turned out for him.

* * *

 _Thanks again for reading, I hope you enjoyed it. There was a teeny tiny bit of discussion, and I know a lot of you are very eager to finally see them talking real things, and I can promise you the next chapter will be a 100 per cent of discussing and talking things out. So, please, stay strong for a couple of days until the next update. The next few chapters, yes I used the plural form, will be full of discussion._

 _Special thanks at this point to DSLeo, who gave me some insight into real hiking, which I tried to throw in this chapter as well as I could. It was on short notice, but I hope I made it work alright._

 _Last but not least, I wish you all a nice_ weekend, _and take one last look at our lovely wild girls, we won't see them for a while. (:_


	8. Big Issues

_Get ready for one of the longest chapters of this story. It's happening, Lorelai and Luke will discuss a lot in this. Have fun on the ride, and I'll see you on the other side._

* * *

 **Chapter 8: Big Issues**

Last day's discussion had taken a different turn than Lorelai had expected. Luke was not completely opposed to the idea of marriage, not that it would fix or change anything between them, but it was nice to know. Marriage was not something they should be discussing right now, yet something about being married seemed attractive to Lorelai, and it kept her thoughts occupied.

They were certainly acting like a married couple; otherwise, people would not have assumed it in the first place. They lived together, knew the other pretty well and they even had a dog together.

Lorelai sighed. Paul-Anka. She missed that dog and she wished they could have brought him with them. Unfortunately, he was too old to run that amount of miles each day. He would have been dead due to exhaustion too soon, and Lorelai wanted to grant him a happy ending. That did not change her feeling of missing her best friend with four legs though.

To overcome that feeling, she put on the beanie with a dog on it, hoping it would make her feel better and to make Paul-Anka a part of his parents' experience in that way.

Today was about getting their resupply in the morning, and then having a rather long distance ahead of them. Usually, Lorelai would sing or hum a song to make hiking easier, but today she was not in the mood to smash "I'm gonna be (500 miles)" all over again, especially since Luke would never join her singing. Which was a pity, since the original song was performed as a duet. The song was perfect to be sung or hummed along a long hike like this. But Luke wouldn't do either, after all, he was not Marshall Eriksen, Lorelai mused.

Her mind was set on talking while walking, and not just ordinary chitchat, but real talking. She wanted to do some discussing, which they had come here in the first place. There was no rule written somewhere that their talking had to take place while seated. Maybe a talk while hiking through the woods was even more effective and brought them to an output quicker. It was worth a try.

She caught up with Luke, walking next to him; the path was wide enough to make it possible for two adults to walk side by side. This stage of their hike was not too steep, the path more even than usual. It was an easy hike, longer than usual, but fairly easy, Luke had said so in the morning. That's what had planted the thought of doing some discussing on the trail into Lorelai's head. She gave it a go, adjusting her hat with the dog on it. The air up in this area was cooler than in the beginning of their hike.

"I think it's time we get to the bottom of-" She paused because she was not sure how to call the problems they had been facing. The problem with the word 'problems' was that it implied a certain seriousness, which she would not acknowledge. Problems and their solving often led to fighting, and the most she was willing to give today was some harsh discussing. Replacing 'problems' with 'issues' didn't sound right either, adding a whole layer of legal formality, which didn't meet her approval either. She settled for a vague word, which could imply everything and nothing, "-things."

"Things like?" Luke interjected.

Her choice of words was too vague in the end, which made her sigh. Loudly, but she clarified, "The reason we're here is to discuss-" She paused, and decided to use the same word again, "-things."

"Yeah."

Lorelai bit her lip; she didn't know how to make her intentions any clearer than by blurting them out straight. That was what she did; the words were bubbling out of her mouth, talking fast was her special skill, well trained, she was not stumbling over a single word. "But we haven't really talked yet, and I'm scared we'll run out of time. So, we should better start discussing-"

Then she gasped, she didn't know how to call it. Using the same word for the third time in a row, seemed odd, and didn't go well with her eloquence she was so proud of. While she still searched for the right choice of words, Luke narrowed his head in her direction, and offered with an eyebrow raised, "Things?"

"Yeah," she gave in. After all, it seemed like the perfect word for it.

"What's on your agenda?" Luke asked, sounding as natural as she wanted him to be. Finally, there were at a point of their trip, where they could dive into the discussing. That had been the whole purpose of coming here.

"Care to explain your 'You keep your crazy family away from me, and I keep mine away from you'?" Lorelai asked; that part of their fall-out in the diner had bugged her the most. She had no clue that was the kind of deal they had struck.

"Well, you know, I-" Luke trailed off, shaking his head instead of expanding on his thoughts.

"Do we really keep things this separate? I mean Liz and especially TJ make you just as crazy as my mother makes me. I want to spend as little time with her as you want to with Liz and TJ. We both keep us away from our crazy families. I don't see how that deal applies," she explained.

"If our crazy families do something crazy, like Liz and TJ, who have gotten themselves into a vegetable cult, I deal with that by myself. I come up with a solution by my own. I will meet Jess after we're back and will get them out. You don't get dragged into the drama. And I expect you to do the same for me when it comes to your mother."

Lorelai took his words in, but it was hard to wrap her head around that. She felt like she was in a parallel universe; the world turning around, bringing her to the Upsidedown, where this deal in the form of a Demogorgon lived. Her footing was unsound, and she wished they were sitting for this kind of conversation after all. She asked in disbelief, "That's how we are supposed to work?"

"Yes, pretty good system."

"No, pretty awful system."

"Not in my opinion."

In response to that exchange, which upset Lorelai even further, she shook her head and added a whole lot of reasoning. "I want to change that, I don't like that system anymore. I want to be involved, in all of your life. And I want you to be involved in mine. We don't keep our lives entirely separate from the other. Otherwise, you would never see or hear about Rory or my mother. And I would never see or hear about April or Liz or even Jess. We share our lives, but not enough in my opinion. I hate that you tell me about stuff and events afterward, like your trip to April. You never include me in the process. You don't give a damn about my opinion, and much less about my feelings. Don't you want to discuss things with me? Not with me as your lover, but with me as your best friend? Don't you want someone listening to your thoughts and giving you another perspective? Because I'd like that."

With every word she spoke, she put more and more energy in her explanations, she walked slower, eventually stopping because walking, talking and carrying a big backpack at that speed didn't work like that. She had to cut something.

Luke turned around, a few feet between them, scoffing, "You don't."

"What? That's not true," she riposted, stepping closer to him and bracing her hands on her hip.

"You didn't discuss your plans for Rory with me either," he retorted, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"We weren't together back then," she reminded him.

"We sure were engaged when she dropped out of Yale and you told me to stay out of it."

He turned around when Lorelai didn't oppose anything right away, she caught up with him eventually, claiming, "That was different."

"How?"

"It-" She stammered, she couldn't form a coherent answer, too busy catching her breath and adjusting to walking, talking and carrying her backpack at the same time again. The pace Luke set was not helping her.

However, Luke completed the sentence for her, "-doesn't matter. You still do it. You won't tell me what happened with Rory until you made up your mind. You're no different than me."

Suddenly, the difference between their two situations was crystal clear to Lorelai; she said, "The difference is Rory's not a kid anymore."

"So is April."

"You said she's still a child," Lorelai brought back to his mind, hoping he would come to his senses and acknowledge her argument.

"Of course, because she is my child. She'll always be. And so is Rory to you, even though she's 32."

"Alright," Lorelai said. "But all of that aside, why didn't you let me help pay for April's trip or her college?"

"Anna and I got it covered. And it's not like I paid for any of Rory's school fees or her trips."

"Only for half of her everyday food," Lorelai threw in. Luke had given them a free meal ever so often, especially when Rory came on her own to the diner. Over the years, he must have spent a fortune on his free food supply for the Gilmore Girls, and while she was grateful he had done that, it had not been his obligation.

"That's different."

"It's not."

"It is," he persisted on his opinion, his gaze rigidly looking ahead, not turning towards her. "April's finances don't have to concern you."

"But I want them to concern me. April is just as much my kid as Rory is yours."

"Lorelai, don't act like you care for her."

"Care, Luke? I love her." Lorelai was indignant about Luke's choice of words. He didn't know her well then.

"What?" He stopped in his step and turned towards her; his mouth had dropped open.

"She's your kid, of course, I do," Lorelai assured him. "I loved her the minute I learned about her. Well, not exactly that moment, but soon after."

"I-"

Lorelai didn't let him respond to her revelation. She expanded on it, choking off any kind of objection, "I love her because she's yours. And I understand that April and you are a package deal just like Rory and me. And honestly, Luke, how can I not love her when she's half you?"

"I appreciate your feelings, I truly do, especially since you two didn't have the best start." He paused for a moment. "But you're not her parent, Lorelai. It's none of your business how I handle her education or her finances. That's my job, not yours."

His answer was harsh, harsher than she had expected him to be. He was not in a position, where he would be willing to compromise, make room for her in April's life, to even consider her. The determination in his eyes was there, and she couldn't look at him anymore, averting her gaze to the ground, checking if the laces on her shoes were still tied. She took one breath after the other, taking her time to answer. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to respond to his statement in any way. There was no room for her answer. At last, she settled for a simple OK. Nothing more.

Lorelai thought he would carry on walking, but he remained standing in front of her. In the corner of her eyes, she could see his shoulders falling lump. She even could hear an exhale, a deep sigh, and then words were uttered, "Hey, I'm sorry. It's not like I don't want you to be part of April's life. I want that, I enjoy it whenever it's the four of us having dinner, which is not often enough. Our girls are just so damn busy. But paying for her school or trips, that's for me and Anna to sort out."

That was some kind of peace offering, which she was not sure if she would take it. Instead, she acknowledged it, looking up again, "Understood."

"Lorelai, come on." He reached for her elbow; his hand only staying there for a second. "Don't be mad at me for this. My hands are tied here. There's nothing I can do."

"Except for considering my opinion," she deadpanned, tilting her head.

"Is it that what you want?" He asked. "Then I'll do it. I will try to include your opinion in, but you will have to accept that I am April's father. I am the one calling the shots. That won't change. And that's all I can offer you."

What he said made a better peace offering. Far better since it cut her some slack. "Alright."

"Are we good?" Luke checked.

"I-" Lorelai's voice broke. She had to think about it for a moment. And thinking was best down when walking. Slowly, she started hiking again, taking her surroundings in. The mountains still high, but they seemed manageable, they seemed conquerable, and for the first time the issues between Lorelai and Luke seemed resolvable too.

"Lorelai," Luke called out, his voice full of worry. He caught up with her eventually, walking next to her for a while, before she finally decided to say something.

"I get where you're coming from. I'm not her mother, you're right. I have no legal rights to make decisions," she told him.

"I promise, I will include you into my thoughts and plans. And if I forget, remind me. Refresh my memory of this very conversation, in which I told you I would at least consider your opinion. As long as you remember, you are not the one calling the shots when it comes to my family," he urged, lying out how that kind of arrangement could work.

"Agreed. We both will work on considering the other when it comes to making plans for our families. Not just April, but all the others too. I want us to be partners, Luke. Partners, who share everything. I want you to be my number one confidant," Lorelai clarified. What he suggested was not enough for her. She wanted more, she wanted to have it all. She wanted her partner in life.

"As I would ever replace Rory," Luke muttered not quite under his breath.

"I'm serious, Luke. Rory is living her own life." That fact had been proven to her painfully this summer and Rory's new set of plans.

"What's the deal with the two of you anyway?" Luke knew how to dig into that wound with expertise.

"Not now," she shook her head, swallowing down any sore feelings, which arose. "We'll get to that later, I promise."

"Alright." He paused, and then he summed up their conversation, "So no entirely separate lives anymore?"

"No, you and me against the world." She shot him a weak smile.

"Too cliché." Luke rolled his eyes.

"Partners making their way through life together. Better?" The smile on her lips was spreading wider.

"I'll take it," Luke said. "I'm too scared what other options you can come up with next."

"Wise man," she snickered. Finally, a real laugh escaped her mouth.

Their first discussion while hiking had been a success and she would try it again - soon. For now, however, she was happy to go back to their usual hiking routine. The path was getting narrow again, and Lorelai lead the way, while Luke followed her. She was humming "500 miles" again.

The day passed by quicker than usual, they set up their camp, ate dinner, and they watched the sun set, completely content that it was just the two of them tonight. They had had enough social encounters in the last days, and while meeting all these people was fun, it was not their main intention for taking this trip.

Lorelai, still thrilled that discussing while hiking had been such a hit, decided to push her luck, and give another big issue a try. Out of the blue, she asked, "Do you want to tell me why you were hiding the house shopping with my mother?"

Luke seemed distracted, going through his backpack, a little more hectic than usual. He still placed the items he fished out of his backpack with care aside, but he grabbed the next one quicker than usual. Lorelai figured the topic stressed him out, but even the uncomfortable issues needed to be discussed.

"Why wouldn't you tell me? I mean you didn't want to do it, so why make it a secret? That makes no sense." She watched him frown as he held a water bottle, but placed it aside next to another after shaking it. Afterward, he, finally, turned in her direction, reacting to what she had said, "Where's your water bottle?"

It was not the reaction Lorelai had been looking for. "Don't change topics now!"

"Lorelai, where is your water bottle?" Luke repeated his question, a little harsher than before.

Even though Lorelai didn't like the tone he used on her, she reached for the water bottle next to her so she could show it to him. "Here with me, but It's almost empty, only a sip left."

"And the back-up?" Luke asked next.

"In Gary, where it should be," she told him, using the nickname for the backpack again, and cleared her throat. "But back to business, why would you not tell me about the property shopping. You were so stressed out over the idea of franchising. I mean, you even gave me that stupid business card. And I don't understand why A) you would even meet with my mother and B) why you would hide it. Did you suddenly change your mind? My mother said something like you didn't get back to her, so I just assume that franchising is still off the table, no Luke's Empire and the possibility to have Luke's coffee from the east to the west coast. Even though April would appreciate if there were a branch close to MIT's campus, I suppose. Rory wouldn't oppose to the idea of getting your coffee wherever she will live in the future. I think Queens is in the run."

Lorelai kept chatting, as she followed Luke all the way to their tent, where her backpack had been standing. While Luke went through Gary, his frown grew deeper as he held her backup bottle in his hands, shaking it up and down. Lorelai watched him with wariness, not sure what his sudden interest for water bottles meant.

"You have to talk to me about this kind of stuff, Luke," she urged him to start spilling the beans on the topic she had been talking about non-stop for the last minutes.

"Not now," he retorted, still looking at the water bottle.

"No, now!" Lorelai insisted. "Now is when we discuss it."

"Not now, stop it, Lorelai," he hissed, bringing one hand up to his head to adjust his cap.

"No, what on earth can be more important right now than discussing why you went property shopping with my mother without telling me about it?" She threw an arm in the air to add a little more drama to her statement. Luke's behavior was outrageous to her, making absolutely no sense.

"We ran out of water," he snapped, getting up to look her in the eye properly. His eyes were filled with anger.

"What?" Lorelai frowned.

"There's not a single drop of water left," he informed her, holding up the water bottle, which he had taken out of her backpack just now.

"That can't be. There must some in this bottle," she gestured towards the violet Thermos bottle, which was able to hold up to 64 oz. It couldn't be empty just yet.

"There isn't," Luke answered and to prove it he turned the opened bottle upside down. But not even a single drop would drip out of it.

"What about the big canister in your backpack?"

"I have used the rest of it for dinner." Luke took his cap off his head to go with his fingers through his hair.

Lorelai understood his frustration, she felt helpless herself. She mimicked him by bringing her hands up to her forehead, holding it. She wouldn't bring her hands through her hair though since it was particularly cold tonight, and the gray hat kept her warm. All kinds of thoughts were running through her head, from reasons how this could happen to possible solutions for their misery. "What do we do now?"

She understood that their conversation was delayed to later. It was one of the rules they had agreed on. Their survival in the wild came prior to their discussion of issues. It had to come first if they wanted a chance at actually living the change they agreed on.

"We have to find some water now," Luke eventually said, putting his cap back on.

"It's late, Luke. Shouldn't we wait for the morning?" Lorelai suggested, walking to God knew where in the dark was not her preferred option. There should be another one.

"I'd rather not wait. Let's check the hiking guide. There's hopefully a spring, a lake or a water tank somewhere close by," Luke suggested, going back to his backpack, in which the hiking guide was stored. He had been treating that book like the holy bible, which in that particular plight was a blessing indeed. Only a mile away there was a small pond, which they could check for water.

They decided to go together, splitting up with only one phone at their hands, didn't seem like a good idea. Therefore, they had to take down their tent and pack their backpacks too, so they could take their belongings with them.

With their flashlights on, they made their way to the pond. It was like a hike at midnight. If it wouldn't be a serious situation, Lorelai would have considered this fun, hiking with a flashlight. She would be coming up with scary stories. Instead, they were hiking quickly, and in silence, only one thing in mind, which was the pond with the water they needed so badly, They weren't dehydrated yet, but better safe than sorry.

They found the pond fairly easy, which seemed to ease Luke's nerves. He filled all of their canisters with water while pumping the water through their filter. To be sure, he also added the water purifications tablets. With a sigh, he settled into his camping chair, which Lorelai had set up for him in the meantime, and he said, "We were lucky there was this pond so close."

"It's the first time, we can use the tablets," Lorelai cheered. She had been excited for these tablets ever since she had read about them in "Wild". It seemed like a miracle to her how these small tablets could make such an important job.

"Why exactly are you happy about that?"

"I'm excited to see how they work," Lorelai informed him, eyeing the bottles, but she couldn't see anything since they were not see-through.

"You won't be excited to taste the water."

"Oh, Mr. Grumpy, let me be all sunshine if I want to," she begged of him, settling on the ground next to him. She sat on her pillows with owls and crossed her legs in front of her. It was times like those that she regretted her choice to bring the pillow with owls with her instead of a camping chair like Luke. The chair was far more comfortable than her pillow.

That pillow was not the ideal choice of an extra item and didn't prove to be as useful as she had hoped it would be. These damn owls wanted to be hers and were screaming her name as she had been going through the store over a week ago.

"It's night," Luke pointed out.

"Let me be Miss twinklestar-so-bright," she corrected herself, and flashed him a smile, hoping she would lift his spirits too after they had this kind of shock tonight.

Luke rolled his eyes; a sign she had accomplished her mission. "Next time, you drink from the backup bottle you report it to me."

"Ay, ay, sir," she joked.

"Tell me!" Luke insisted.

He was right to be serious about it; this was nothing, which should be joked about it. Their life depended on water. A body could go without food far longer than without a drink. "I will," Lorelai assured him.

"I don't want to search around like crazy again."

"Got it." Lorelai watched Luke staring at their water bottles for a moment, and then asked, "Can we talk now? About you going property shopping with my mother?"

"Not yet," Luke simply replied.

"Luke!"

"Let's have some water first," he suggested.

"I thought we could clear that subject in the time waiting for the water being cleared up by the magic tablets."

"I feel like this is gonna take longer than-" He paused to take a look at his watch. "-25 minutes."

Lorelai exhaled deeply, looking around at her surroundings, tapping her feet up and down. She wanted to use time efficiently. Waiting another 25 minutes seemed like an eternity, and made her antsy.

"We made a deal. We accept when someone says they don't feel like talking about a certain topic. We will talk about it on this trail, but not right now," Luke said.

"Ok. So change of topics in the meantime?" Lorelai asked, meeting his gaze.

"Let's just linger in the silence and look at the star-covered sky." Luke jerked his head up to the clear sky, which granted them a sunny time at day, but the warmth escaped more easily at the night, making it cold at times, especially since they hit one of the highest levels of their hike at the moment.

"How romantic," Lorelai said, as she zipped up her jacket, looking at the sky, wishing someone could explain the stellar constellation to her, pointing out where the zodiac signs of the Taurus and the Scorpio were. She had to guess herself, which was no fun and the chance of getting it wrong was higher that way, not that she really cared about it.

Because she was completely lost in her own thoughts and the stories behind the stars the 25 minutes passed by quicker than expected; she had shifted once in her seat, bringing her knees closer to her chest. It was getting a little chillier the longer they sat there. The newly cleared and now safe water was cool too, which made Lorelai shiver from the inside. Her throat needed to be moistened too; the impromptu hike in the evening had taken away her breath since Luke had urged her to walk faster than usual.

She cleared her throat after taking big gulps and noted, "We still need to set up the tent."

"Yeah," Luke sighed, got off his chair and handed her his big flashlight, which she had lovingly called Luna. She was giving him the light while he set up the tent. Within a couple of minutes, their camp was set up again and the food stored away from possible bears.

Soon, however later than usual, they were settled in the tent, ready to sleep. Lorelai couldn't keep her eyes open long after her head hit her owl pillow; exhaustion of the day in general and their nightly extra mile caught up with her. However, when she heard Luke cleared his throat and raised his voice, her eyes shot wide open, even rolling to her other side, so she could look at him. His voice was soft, laying out his side of the story, no harsh words, just plain explanations.

"I didn't ask your mother to go property shopping with me. She ambushed me one day at the diner. You can't say no to Emily Gilmore, you of all people should know that. She bossed me around, even made me change my outfit. She kept me busy all day, taking me from one site to the other, talking non-stop with that real-estate agent she had brought along. These two together were like sharks. I was afraid of them; afraid to utter my opinion. I followed along, figuring that once I survived that day I would get myself out of her claws somehow, probably by asking for your help. But then she told me she had quit therapy, which I had no clue about because you hadn't told me. I was caught out, and that smile on your mother's face, seeing it in the rearview mirror was enough."

"I know that smile. Wasn't pretty either when she flashed it toward me," Lorelai interjected for the first time. She had been patiently taking all of his Luke's narration in, hearing it for the first time out of his perspective, without being in the middle of a heated discussion.

"And suddenly all these thoughts were running through my head. If your mother wasn't going to therapy anymore, why would you still tell me you were going? Where were you going instead? What was worth hiding from me? And there was only one thing I could come up with." His eyes darted from one side to the other, clearly feeling uneasy by reliving that assumption.

"Cheating," Lorelai was not afraid to take that word in her mouth. She knew these accusations were wrong, but all Luke did in response was narrowing his eyes. His chest was rising and falling heavily. He was fighting for control over his emotion, apparently still not entirely sure what to make out of Lorelai's behavior.

"I was not cheating on you. You know that, right?" Lorelai checked.

"I don't know what to think anymore," Luke revealed, shaking his head. His palms were pressed together, while his finger fidgeted over the back of his hands.

"You can call my therapist if you want." Lorelai corrected herself instantly, "My former therapist. She will tell you I was there; I even have the receipts at home. I was not cheating. I would never be unfaithful to you. You made it pretty clear when we got back together that being faithful was one of your main conditions of giving us another try."

Lorelai paused her clarification to check if he would give her some kind of signal of consent, which he did by nodding carefully, not too enthusiastic though. His nods could be bigger for Lorelai's taste, which she attempted to achieve by adding, "And that's a deal, Luke, that I remember. I still hold onto that it. I've not broken it, even with flirting every now and then, but I'm not looking for something because we have something."

Luke's fingers were still moving around uncontrolled, but they moved from fidgeting to pressing the sleeping bag's material between them. He then asked, "Therapy, why did you hide that?"

That question made Lorelai take in a deep breath; it was nothing she was able to talk about easily. "It's not easy to admit that I go to therapy," she whispered back.

"Nothing is ever easy for you to admit," Luke pointed out, turning his head to look at her instead of looking at the tent's ceiling.

"This is different. Going to therapy, Luke, is huge. I needed time to wrap my head around that idea myself." She paused and bit down on her lip for a moment. "I just needed time, nothing else; I wasn't intentionally hiding it from you. You kept asking me about therapy with my mother and I kept my answers vague."

"I was giving you the chance to come clean, but you wouldn't take it. It was right there, but you decided to hide it," Luke accused her, and maybe he was right with that. She had chickened out, but she was not ready to share therapy with anyone at that time. Not even Rory had known back then.

Instead, Lorelai argued back, "But you knew already. What would it have changed if I told you earlier? You would still have flipped, accusing me of an affair, right?"

"I-"

Lorelai interrupted him; she didn't need to listen to his assumptions, which would misrepresent his actions, making him look better than he was. She knew him better than that, she knew how his mind worked, and she couldn't blame him. "You would have! Because Lorelai Gilmore and therapy don't mix well."

"You've got a point there," Luke said, letting go of his army green sleeping bag, smoothing his hand over it now.

For a while, Lorelai watched as he smoothened over the sleeping bag, not showing any sign of wanting to continue this conversation. She had expected him to ask her follow-up questions, but there were none. It was up to her to create an atmosphere, in which questions could be asked without second thoughts and without holding back. Clearing this kind of stuff was what they wanted to do here on the trail, that was why she disclosed with a bit of reluctance, "It does help, you know. Going to therapy."

"Yeah?"

Lorelai nodded in response, but Luke would only be able to catch it in the corner of his eyes because he stared at the ceiling again. "It helps me getting my mess in order. And there's been some mess in my life. Everything was falling apart when my dad died. Seeing my mom hurt, her world so shaken up that she decided to hire a stranger, who she couldn't even communicate with. That's crazy. And with Sookie gone, and Rory everywhere and nowhere, I felt like my whole world was upside down, or swirling and twirling very fast, which makes it hard to stand up straight."

"The earth spins, that's just a law of nature," Luke threw in.

"Therapy made me realize a thing or two, and I don't regret my choice of going there. I could have handled it better, I know." She paused, and then revealed, "I was afraid you would make fun of me."

Luke's eyes moved, but Lorelai couldn't tell whether he was rolling his eyes or just shooting her a side-glare. He added, "Fair enough, I probably would have taken it as a joke at first."

His answer made her smile. "You're no big mystery to me after all. I know you by heart now."

"Apparently knowing each other for two decades helps with that," he retorted, turning his head towards her again, so she could meet his gaze.

Looking him straight in the eye was giving her the strength to offer him everything, a wild card on her thoughts and experiences on therapy, "Anything else you want to know about me going to therapy?"

"No." He gripped some of the sleeping bag between his fingers, clasping it into his fist. "Therapy sessions and their content are confidential, right?"

"Not sure, but I guess so." She would be willing to share, but only if he wanted to hear about it, but he didn't seem like it. Lorelai, however, decided to share some of it nevertheless, she wanted to soothe his nerves, make him feel better. "There was not a single bad word about you. You have no need to feel insecure." She reached out for his hands, which were buried in the sleeping bag, and intertwined her fingers with his. "You're a good one. A keeper."

"Good to hear." Luke squeezed her hand for a long time, drawing circles at the back of her hand, which only made her hold tighter onto his hand.

"Am I a keeper too?"

"Debate's still on about that," he shot back not letting go of her hand, which should have been answer enough, but Lorelai pushed for a verbal one.

"You're teasing, right?"

"You're on a good way," he admitted, a smile playing on his lips, which revealed the teasing part of his statement.

"No, Luke, we're on a good way," she laid emphasis on the words, which had an even deeper meaning to her. They had done quite some discussing today. Things, as she liked to put it, were resolved. Not all things, but some pretty big ones.

All the discussing was tiring though, she yawned, withdrawing her hand from Luke's grip and placing it in front of her mouth.

"How about we take the day off tomorrow?" Luke suddenly suggested, settling on his side too, so he could look at Lorelai properly. "I could use some extra sleep."

Lorelai smiled at him. Another yawn escaped her before she could answer, "I agree."

They had deserved the extra sleep and a day without hiking a mile. A zero-mile-day was long overdue, and maybe if the odds were in their favor, they could talk about another big thing on their list. You never knew what was in store for the next day, but with no miles ahead of them, there was a day full of free time, which had to be filled. With the progress they had made today, it was not so out of the box to make things like that happen again. Only time would tell.

* * *

 _Are you alright? That was quite a ride. The first big round is over; it was probably the most important one. Our Ls made a very big step in their relationship, and they deserve a day off. Don't you think so too?_

 _Thanks for reading and please let me know what you think (:_


	9. Full Package

**Chapter 9: Full Package**

Sleeping in was even to Luke a blessing, even though he was up at the crack of dawn. Usually he would get up now and he would prepare breakfast, which granted Lorelai extra 20 minutes of sleep. Today, however, he didn't have to jump to his feet since they had decided to take a day off. They had already managed to tackle half of their distance, thanks to his good planning.

It was his planning instincts, which made him reach for the hiking guide instead of staying put. He could have easily rolled onto his side, wrapping an arm around Lorelai, who was still sleeping peacefully. Lorelai had been sleeping closer to him than the nights before, her legs were bent in his direction as she was reaching for some body contact, which both of their sleeping bags restricted them to do.

Even though holding Lorelai close to him, which he had not done all week was tempting, Luke gave into his gut feeling and checked the hiking guide, and after reading through it, he was happy he had decided to have a look into it. He would share his discovery with Lorelai as soon as she awoke.

In the meantime, Luke decided to give into the other urge and settled on his side, wrapping an arm around Lorelai's middle. It was easy to slip back into the sleeping routines, which they only shared in the beginning of their relationship. When they first had gotten together, he always had to make sure she was still there. For the first few weeks, he had to convince himself that she was real. Somewhere along the line of being together for almost a decade, he let go of that fear, but it was still nice to wrap an arm around her.

Lorelai stirred under his grip way too soon though and she rolled over so she was facing him. Her eyes cracked open slightly and as soon as they laid on him, her lips formed into a smile, which he immediately returned. It was harder to suppress it, he liked her early-yet-lazy-morning-smiles the best; they were so pure.

"Morning," she whispered and then she lifted her head, Luke thought she was about to get up, but instead she pressed a soft kiss on his lips, her left hand rested on his jaw, caressing it and going through the stubble on his cheeks, which had grown to a proper beard by now.

Luke was flustered by her kiss; he had neither returned her greeting nor had he returned the kiss properly. Her lips were on and off his lips within a second, a quick peck, which nevertheless threw him off. He was surprised she could have such an effect on him even after knowing each other for such a long time.

Her hand was still going up and down his jaw. By the darting of her eyes, he figured she was debating whether she liked or hated the stubble. Eventually, she met his gaze again, and said, "You're getting all rough."

"Like it?"

Lorelai wrinkled her nose, and that was answer enough to him, but she added, "I'm happy when it comes off again."

Luke placed a hand on hers, trapping it at his jaw. And because it was already sitting there, he decided to turn his head so he could place a kiss on her inner wrist. He never did that, but this morning they were acting especially tender towards each other. He let go of her hand, and said, "We're halfway through."

"And we have discussed all of our major issues," Lorelai added, giving his jaw one more squeeze and then pulled her hand away.

"I thought we could spend our day off at this small lake, which is like two miles away. It's supposed to be very pure and rather warm. It has a very nice view over the mountains too. We could wash some of our clothes, and get clean ourselves."

"Skinny-dipping?"

Luke rolled his eyes at Lorelai's comment, but she interjected, "I thought on a zero-mile-day you are not supposed to hike at all. Wouldn't hiking there go against that rule?"

"We can stay at our lovely pond too, but I'd rather not use that water for washing," Luke responded. If he took a day off, he wanted to spend it at a place he was actually looking forward to spending it and not a place he was only because they had run out of water the day before.

Lorelai had to be thinking along those lines too because she wrinkled her nose, and then she asked again, "Two miles?"

"Yeah." He nodded and hoped he had convinced her.

"OK, but I want something in return."

Her sheepish grin on her face gave her intentions away. He knew how her mind worked, her crazy-twisted mind. "No skinny-dipping."

Before Lorelai could start moaning and her doomed attempts to change his mind, Luke sat up and started breakfast. Serving her the instant coffee, which would probably taste a little off with the cleaned water was all he was willing to offer her as a return service. He handed her a cup of the dark liquid, which smelled nothing like coffee to him, and asked, "Do you miss it?"

His question made Lorelai laugh, hard and uncontrolled, it came from the bottom of her stomach, filling the tent with laughter. "You have no idea."

Asking Lorelai Gilmore if she missed coffee was, in the end, a silly question, the answer to that was plainly obvious. The question itself served more as a rhetorical figure, which would introduce an easy flowing conversation, which was just right to have breakfast, pack their stuff and get to the lake.

The sight of the lake and the mountains in the background let Lorelai drop all of her belongings to run towards the lake with a smile on her face. She couldn't hide her excitement, and Luke knew that it had been the right the decision to spend their zero-mile-day, which had turned into a two-mile-day here. He unlimbered his backpack too, and the next time he looked at Lorelai she had tossed her shoes and socks away, so she could dip her feet into the water.

It was times like that Lorelai amazed him. She acted impulsively like a child would do, and even though he was shaking his head, she talked him into joining her at the spontaneous swim. After all, he had suggested taking a proper bath in the lake in the first place.

There was no skinny-dipping though, but some water getting splashed from one the other. They spent some time in the water, but when Luke notices Lorelai's lips were looking a little blue, he called the swim off. The water was not quite as warm as he would have preferred it, but it was definitely tolerable as soon as you got used to it.

When they left the lake and toweled themselves, Luke said, "That was enough of a swim for me."

"Oh no, Mister, we still have to wash our clothes. Or wash ourselves with shampoo and shower gel, for that matter." Lorelai raised a warning finger at him. "But not before we've had lunch."

Preparing lunch was done quickly, and soon Luke and Lorelai were in the water again. First taking care of their personal hygiene, and then they washed some of their clothes. Luke was able to flee from a second round of water splashes hitting his way though, and sooner than later he was sitting in his camping chair, watching as their clothes dried in the sun.

Lorelai had sat at the lake for a while, treating their day at the lake like a day at a spa, her complaints about missing a peach shampoo and a coconut shower gel were unbearable, but she survived it. With her still wet hair in a bun, wearing a thick pullover Luke had convinced her to put on, she came up to him, and asked out of the blue, "Is it allowed to bring up another subject on our list of things to talk about?"

Luke nodded and gestured for her to sit down. She sat on the ground, reaching out for her owls pillow, which already had a stain here and there, but Lorelai Gilmore got used to all kinds of things he never thought he would ever see her counter. The words she uttered had to go on the list too. Without further ado, she announced, "I'm going through menopause."

"Menopause?"

"Well, peri-menopause. It's probably still a couple of years till I reach the actual menopause, but yes, it's official; I'm an old lady now. My best years are over." she rolled her eyes to add a whole lot of drama to her statement.

"You're no old lady," Luke immediately responded. Reassuring her she was still young and in her best years, was etched in his memory, and he couldn't shake that trait off.

"Well, nature says I'm not as young as I claim to be." Lorelai folded her legs in front of her.

"Why haven't you told me?" Luke bent forward; his elbows came to rest on his knees, where he supported the weight of his torso on.

"It's not something you easily discuss with the guy you're with." Lorelai shrugged, apparently uncomfortable with the direction that conversation had taken. "And I thought you'd figure eventually anyway with all those hot flashes I experienced recently."

Luke abstained from reproaching her about keeping something from him. She had come clean about it, which was all that mattered to him. There was no need to get mad about this. It wouldn't do any of them any good. He said, "I was just happy that the years of giving you my jacket were over. Even though the open bedroom window at night should have given you away."

"We had big fights when I asked you to shut the window all these years ago; you should be happy about that," Lorelai reminded him.

"I am," Luke assured her.

"Plus, sometimes I regret opening it still, and then you get to hold me. Not so bad either?"

"Not bad at all." Luke chuckled, thinking of the morning when he had his arm wrapped around her waist. That had not been bad at all, quite in contrary, it had felt awfully good to him. "So, that was the reason for the surrogate thing?"

"Partly." Lorelai shrugged again. "I could still get pregnant. Remember, it's peri-menopause and not menopause yet, which means my estrogen level is on a rollercoaster, constantly changing, making it completely unpredictable. It's up and down."

"But it could happen?" Luke insisted. He was not familiar with the biology and the functional principle of the female body. His biology classes had been a long time ago and didn't deal with women in the peri-menopause, even though his biology teacher at that time had to be hitting peri-menopause for sure.

"Do you want it to happen?" Lorelai asked softly, with hesitance in her voice.

Luke didn't hesitate when he answered, yet his response was full of uncertainty. "I don't know." He paused to shrug and then sigh because that topic was delicate after all. "I mean, do you want to throw a kid into the mess?" he asked.

"We don't have a mess here," Lorelai retorted.

"Lorelai," he said. She was living in denial if she didn't acknowledge the mess of their relationship. Yes, they had made progress, but that trip was not over yet. Counting chickens before they were hatched was a risky business after all; Lorelai herself had said so only days ago.

"We're sorting through the mess. When the kid's here, it would be all resolved, don't you think?"

"Yeah, sure." His answer trailed off because he wasn't sure of it.

"Luke?" Lorelai's eyes widened.

"Just because we're talking it out now, doesn't mean we're falling back into old patterns. Especially in our usual environment."

"Wow, there's Mr. Optimistic."

"Realistic," Luke interjected. "Always been."

"Oh, come on!" Lorelai squawked. "You're the pessimistic one, I'm the optimistic one, and together we're realistic. It's always been like that."

"Jeez," Luke hissed. "Fine."

"Luke, a relationship is work, constant work and I don't say we'll never hit another rough patch. But it shouldn't stop us from having a child when that's what we really want."

"Is it what we really want?" Luke asked; he locked eyes with her. He wasn't sure where they were standing on this topic. A year ago, he had been happy with how things were with them, but then she had planted that thought of little kids in his head, making him agree to go to Paris' surrogate agency. He couldn't deny he would have wanted kids a couple of years ago, but now he wasn't so sure anymore. It was one big confusion in his head. He couldn't think straight anymore.

Lorelai hesitated, but then responded to his question with another one. "When you look into the future, let's say 10, 15 or 20 years, what do you see? What do you want to see?"

"Lorelai," he sighed, not in the mood for one of her games, but she insisted, "What do you see, Luke?"

The future. That was a big word. A big unknown. A big dark space. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't identify anything when thinking of the future. And he didn't want to know what was still ahead of him as long as Lorelai was still with him. Suddenly, there were those blue eyes with the fine lines around them, her button nose, which she wrinkled at times, and that magnificent smile flashing towards him. Seeing that face un-scared the future to him. "I see your face," he said at last.

"Flattering. I have a nice face." She pointed towards her face with a self-evident hand gesture.

"Not just nice," Luke objected, yet he was not able to explain how beautiful her face was to him.

Lorelai blushed. "It's not the time to talk sweet now. What else do you see?"

"I-" he stammered because he didn't see more than Lorelai's face, there was darkness around her face.

"Let me tell you what I see," Lorelai offered. "I see us. Both retired."

"In ten years?" Luke cut in. In ten years, he would be only in his early sixties, which was hardly an age, at which he could afford to retire.

"No, in 20." Lorelai clicked her tongue, and resumed her imagination of the future, "We're still living in the house, bickering over food and movies. And I know this is unrealistic, but Paul-Anka is still there."

"Paul Anka the third," Luke interposed. He knew Lorelai would persuade him to get another dog once Paul-Anka died. Or she would show up with another puppy just like she had done with Paul-Anka.

"The third?"

"Or forth."

"Not just the second?" Lorelai baffled.

"No." To Luke, it was a miracle that Paul-Anka was still alive. Polish Lowland Sheepdogs didn't get as old as Paul-Anka.

Lorelai, however, didn't let Luke disillusion her, and she carried on, "And I see the girls popping in and out, and God knows what they do, but they are successful and don't have that much time for their ol' parents. Occasionally, my mother will barge in too, and she will constantly harass us with her calls."

"She's still alive?" Now it was Luke, who was surprised.

"Duh, she's a Gilmore," Lorelai retorted in a you-are-crazy-to-believe-otherwise-fashion. "She will outlive us all. Even Rory."

"She's not a real Gilmore. She married your father," Luke reminded her, trying to beat Lorelai in her logic. A world, in which Emily Gilmore outlived them all was a scary one.

"That's the thing. As soon she married dad, she became a real Gilmore and inherited all the great, and not so great traits. One of them is to get a thousand years old and make sure Rory and I, well mostly me, live up to the Gilmore name."

"And why don't you get a thousand years old?" After all, Lorelai was a true Gilmore, not just by marriage, but by blood.

"I will have to pretend I died, so does Rory, and then we can live without her scrutinizing look. It will make life so much easier."

"Will I have to fake my death too?" Luke narrowed his eyes. He never knew when Lorelai was serious about something or just joking. This story could go either way.

"Of course. Do you think I will let you hanging there alone and deal with my mother? We'll fake a car crash," she said, making a dramatic hand gesture. "Very tragic," she added at last.

"We'll have to move," Luke concluded.

"Just for a while." Lorelai waved it off, like moving to a different town was no big deal, probably coming up with a new set of identities too. All the work. Luke sighed. This conversation had made a crazy turn and he was not comfortable with where it was heading to at the moment. Their conversation used to be serious, and now it was just another of Lorelai's bits, at least that was Luke's hope.

Lorelai seemed to notice Luke's discomfort because she said, "The point is, whatever my future has in store for me, Luke, I want you to be there with me. And so do you, don't you?"

"Yeah. I think that crass example made this clear," Luke almost choked at the words. Faking his death made him worry.

"And it also made it clear to me, that I don't see kids running around." One of her shoulders rose, while her head tilted too. Her lips were stretched into a thin line.

"Every kid we would have now would be all grown up and moved out in 20 years," Luke reminded her. A kid of 20 or 19 years would be at college, away from the parents, while those were suffering from the empty-nest-syndrome, trying to get comfortable in an empty house while at the same time getting to know each other again, adjusting to a life of just two, and not three.

"So, you do want another child?" Lorelai clarified.

"I told you last year, I was happy with how things were," Luke said, raising his arms in the air.

"I don't you want you to give up on that idea, if it's your dream and what you really want," Lorelai insisted.

"It's not what I want anymore," Luke answered harsher than intended; he didn't want to talk about this anymore, why couldn't she accept his answer.

"But it was at some point," she shot back.

Lorelai went on and on about it; she got wound about it, which frustrated Luke, who couldn't sit still anymore. He jumped to his feet, exclaiming, "This is crazy. We're running in circles here. You're happy, I'm happy. Why do we have to discuss this any longer?"

"I just want you to be sure about it." Lorelai also got up to her feet, to come to the same eye-level.

"I am!" Luke proclaimed, and he really was. There was no hidden lie about his. He was sure. He was truly happy, with her life, with her, with everything. "Aren't you?"

"I-" No words followed. All Lorelai did was shake her head, then she looked towards the sky and then her gaze drifted towards the crystal blue lake, which lay so calmly in between the mountains, peaceful and less upsetting than this conversation. Luke understood what was so fascinating about this vista.

"Do you want a kid with me?" Luke asked again, nevertheless, getting frustrated with her behavior, which made him bring his hands on his forehead, tapping his fingers against his cap.

Again, there was no proper word coming out of Lorelai's mouth, some stumbling, her gaze fixated on the lake, in whose direction she then walked. Her arms folded in front of her, smoothing her hands over her upper arms.

Luke watched her and exhaled deeply. He had pushed and she had withdrawn herself, fled the conversation towards the tranquil lake, which offered so much quietness. He granted her the peace, only for a minute; he couldn't leave this conversation hanging. If they were not bound to hike any more miles today, he wanted this issue to be resolved.

If she really didn't want to discuss it, she would tell him off. The rules, which they had settled on the evening before their big adventure started still applied. It was the ace up in her sleeve, which she could play anytime, and he would accept that.

For now, he had to try, and talk it out. With a couple of big strides, he approached her and stood next to her, his eyes were not looking at her but the calm lake. He cleared his throat and said, "I think if you have to think about it that long, it's obvious you don't want a kid. If you're unsure we shouldn't do this. It should be an easy decision."

"Having kids is not easy, never, and you know that," her answer was just above her whisper, the voice weak, not breaking yet, but almost. He had hit close to home, striking a nerve with her.

"I do," Luke said and turned to his right to look at her. There were not tears running down her cheeks like he had expected, but she was trembling a little. "But the decision should be easy. It should be something we both want. And I'm sorry to break this to you like this." He paused and took a deep breath before he finally added, "But it's not what we want. And I have no clue why it is so hard for you to admit that. It is because Michel's having a child?"

"No, it's not that," she answered, closing her eyes and at the same time lowering her head. Her hair, which had been not in a ponytail like the rest of the trip was failing in front her face, hiding her away even a little more from the world, almost like she was shielding from the ugly truth.

"What is it then?" Out of instinct, Luke reached out to tuck a strand of hair behind her ear. He wanted to see her face; he didn't enjoy talking to her messy hair.

For a moment Lorelai stirred under his touch, but then lifted her head to meet his gaze again. She exhaled once, and then a second time, before she, eventually, admitted, "We should have had a middle."

"A middle?" Luke frowned. He had no idea what she could be referring to.

"The house, the dog, the kids and the matching jogging suits," Lorelai clarified.

Still Luke didn't know how she could say they had no middle. They had all of that. He said, "We have the house, and the dog. I'm not a big fan of matching jogging suits but you can get them if that's what you really want. No Hello Kitty though. And we have the kids. We have April and Rory. We have a middle."

Luke placed both of his hands on her shoulders; he was about to shake her to her senses. How could she not see that they had all of that?

"It's not the middle I pictured. Not the middle all the other people have," she argued.

Luke snorted at that, "Since when do we compare ourselves to other people?"

"It should have been different with us," she shot back, maintaining on her grounds.

"We can't change that!" Luke couldn't help himself, and shook her, trying to knock some sense into her, but all that happened was Lorelai getting emotional. Her eyes filled up with tears, which eventually dripped down her cheeks.

"No. Lorelai, come on, no. Come here." He drew her into a hug, tugging one arm around her waist, while the other has was coiled around her nape, caressing it, drawing hopefully soothing circles on her neck. He tried to make her relax and calmer. Her face got buried into the crook of his neck, where she drew heavy sobs against his skin, which brought a shiver down his spine. He tried to reassure her with words too, bringing his mouth closer to her ear, burying his nose into her hair, which did not smell like her. There were no peaches coming his way.

"We had our middle. We're still living it," he whispered, tightening his grip on her, bringing her closer and closer towards him, crushing her against his chest. He would never stop holding her until she was better, which she indicated by nodding, very weak, but he could feel it. What he did, the hugging and the words of comfort were working, and he added some more words, "The last nine years were our middle. I don't feel like we wasted them, do you?"

Luke could feel her lips moving against his neck, but her words were muffled; he couldn't understand them. He loosed his hug and she pushed away just enough so she could meet his gaze again. She said, "No, they were not a waste."

Only for a moment, Luke felt relieved, and his shoulders were slumped. Her next words, however, brought some tenseness back to his body. She said, "But it should have been different."

Lorelai still could not let go of an alternate universe, a what-if-, which sounded pleasing, but they were in a different kind of reality, which needed to be accepted. Luke said, "If you really wanted it to be different then, you would have pushed for it. You would have asked for it if it would have been what you really wanted. And I would have pushed for a kid too if I really wanted one."

"No, you wouldn't," Lorelai argued.

"I would have tried again." Luke was sure of that. His one attempt at the little league game was just a thought, not a deep desire. A pleasing thought to see his own son running off the field to get to the toilet. The thought was not strong enough though, already forgotten the following day. "But the fact is no one of us did because we were happy with each other. And deep down, we both know that's still true."

"When did you become so wise?" Lorelai asked, bringing her arms up to his middle, smoothing over his sides, finally, the hug was not one-sided anymore.

"Picked up some wisdom from a clever lady in my life.

"Oh, Luke." Lorelai looked at him, he could see them growing wide in adoration.

"Not you. I was talking about Babette," he deadpanned.

Lorelai nodded, rolling her eyes. "Of course," she said, a smile on her lips, she patted his shoulders, and pushed a little further away from him.

Luke, however, was not ready to let her escape the embrace, tightening his hold on her again. He stressed, "Bottom line is we're happy, you and I."

"That we are," Lorelai agreed, and staying in his hug a little while longer, until she escaped him for good, processing what they had discussed. He let her have some space. This had been huge, and their zero-mile-day, which had turned into a two-miles-day was meant for regeneration.

* * *

 _Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, even though they decided against another kid. Or do you think this discussion is not over yet? At the end of the day, the most important thing (for me) is that Lorelai and Luke are happy. And they had their full package, in a not so traditional way, but who cares?_

 _And a little insight: Lorelai going through peri-menopause made a lot of sense to me and hit me about five months after the revival. I thought it was odd that she wore nothing but this thin dress for the wedding without tights, while the others wore jackets. I mean, it was November after all. It seems like she must be hot. With her age, it made complete sense to me, and suddenly I understood the need for a surrogate (except to find an excuse to have Paris and Luke in room, which is always pure entertainment!)._

 _See you all hopefully soon, and let me know what you think if you feel like it. (:_


	10. Future

**Chapter 10: Future**

Their zero-mile-day was over too soon. Dinner was eaten and Lorelai was more relaxed than she had been in a very long time. The big topic of having kids was off the table and resolved. Luke was right after all; they had their middle and their full package. They had a happy life with kids and a dog. The matching suits were missing, but in then all that mattered was their happiness.

Her content with her life made it easy to engage in an almost normal conversation about their next stage of their hike. When everything was said about that, they watched the night sky over the lake, taking yet again nature's beauty in. It was a natural thing to do, almost like watching some repetitive TV show, which on one hand was catchy, but on the other hand, there was no better program on.

Lorelai thought Luke was as caught up in the surroundings as she was, but he cleared his throat asked out of the blue, "Why the surrogate then?"

It caught Lorelai off guard, that was why she had no time to come up with a deflecting answer but answered truthfully. There was no point of avoiding it anyway. She shrugged and said, "I thought we missed out on something and it was a way to make it possible."

"You wanted it?" He checked, apparently needing to know she was absolutely good with their decision to not have any more kids.

"I really liked the idea of a mini you running around," she confessed, She could not deny that a little mini-Luke running around in the house acted as a pleasing image.

"There's only enough room for one Luke Danes in this world." He tried taking away some of the seriousness.

"Don't you like the thought of little kids bringing some noise to our house, putting their jam hands everywhere they can reach? Giving you a cuddle whenever you want?" Lorelai painted a pleasing image, which she had been dreaming about ever since the thought of kids had been planted in her head.

"I've got you to fulfill all those needs," he answered, jerking his head in her direction.

"Wouldn't it be nice to have a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old running around in our house?" Lorelai asked, but this time around she answered her question herself. "I would like a 7-year-old and a 5-year-old running around and driving us crazy with their jam hands. I really would, but I don't want to wait another 7 years for that to happen. And since you ruled out adoption, we won't adopt a 7- and 5-year-old. That pleasing image will stay just that. A thought. Will it?"

Lorelai looked at him with anticipation, the thought experiment had made her so happy that she could not suppress a smile. It seemed to please Luke too because he was returning her smile, eventually saying, "I mean if you really want to, I'll try to warm up to that idea."

"You would?" Lorelai's face lit up even more; she never thought he would give in to the idea. He had been strict about adoption in the first place.

"I would miss all the parts I missed with Rory and April, but-" Luke sighed. He loved those two girls with all he had, but he met both of them at the age of twelve, and even though they both were still like a child back then, they were no toddlers or little kids, who still believed in Santa Clause. Lorelai mused Luke felt like he missed out on a crucial part of their development, which he was kind of right about.

"No, you should have the full experience. The day Rory smiled for the first time in her life was one of the greatest in mine," Lorelai told him; she still smiled, but this time around because she relived these fond memories of a young Rory.

"I'm not sure I want that," Luke said.

"What do you mean?" Lorelai asked; not catching up with his train of thoughts. She had been too wrapped up thinking of Rory smiling at her for the first time ever. Her current conversation had been pushed aside, almost forgotten completely.

"Babies cry at night," he said, which made Lorelai frown, but listening to what else he to say. "They wake you up. I can't deal with a lack of sleep; I get even grumpier and I can't think straight when I'm sleep-deprived. That's why you have kids when you're young. You can compensate when you're young. I can't do that anymore."

"So, we do consider us old now?" Lorelai arched an eyebrow, letting go of the frown.

"I for my part, yes. If you still want to be in the young half of the population, I'm fine with it." They had an ongoing debate going on about their age, besides their usual bickering about food and movies, age was their most used bickering topic.

"I'll join you in the old half soon," Lorelai gave in today, which Luke didn't acknowledge; his mind was set on reasoning.

"The thing is, I don't want to have children anymore because I feel like I'm too old. I know age doesn't matter and we're still healthy, but I'm not thirty anymore, I'm not even forty anymore," he sighed at that. "Sometimes, my back has more bad days in the week than good days, and I expect that to get worse with time. When I come home I don't want to chase some toddler, I want to just sit down, eat, watch whatever movie you pick and be. I don't need action in my life; I want peace. I think I've gained my peace. I don't want to give that up. I don't want any more kids, I have April and Rory, I have that mutt of yours, and Kirk is a lot to handle too. And sometimes you act like a child. I don't want any more. I'm good like that. I'm still stressed at times, but for the most part, I'm good. I'm really good."

For a whole while, neither Lorelai nor Luke said something. Luke was all talked out; it seemed like he had let it all out what had been stored inside of him. At least, he played with open cards now on that issue, which Lorelai truly appreciated, although it was still hard to process for her. After all, it was a huge revelation.

Eventually, she whispered, her voice weak, "Thank you for being honest."

Her tone must have startled Luke because he started to explain himself, to make the many words he had spoken a little more bearable. "Did I-?"

But Lorelai shook her head, which made Luke stop, granting her some moments of silence to wrap her head around this. Luke was not wrong to feel the way he did. Little kids at their age would be a challenge, and they had been through enough and deserved their peace and quiet. Most of the time, Lorelai enjoyed it too, she enjoyed that she did not have to go to every little league soccer game. She was happy that there was no one, who needed her help for homework. Yet she missed the love only a child could give, the unconditional love while watching them grow and learn every day, becoming wonderful human beings like Rory and April.

However, if Luke didn't want it she was not sure she wanted to pursue that dream. Raising kids was hard business at times, and if her partner in life was not a hundred percent in this having kids would be a no-brainer. The idea of little kids running around in the house, chasing Paul-Anka was not pleasing at all when Luke would be sitting exhausted on the couch, shuttering his nerves because he sought some peace and quiet after a stressful day at the diner.

There was nothing more than she wanted to see Luke happy, after all, he was her partner in life. The one person, who would stay next to her side forever, never leaving her.

Then another thought crossed her mind, kids were not the only way to make a middle work. There was another way. At last, she said, "I want to get married."

"What?" Luke exclaimed, apparently this time around he couldn't follow her train of thoughts. Lorelai couldn't blame him; it was a stretch of deciding from not wanting to have more kids to getting married.

"I want something more permanent if-" Lorelai said, but Luke interrupted her, insisting, "We are permanent."

Deep down she knew it, but there was some doubt, little, but it was there, "I want something that assures me we're meant to last."

"A piece of paper-" Luke argued, but this time around Lorelai was the one, who interrupted him by saying, "Marriage is more than a piece of paper. It's a promise you will always be there for me, and that I'll always be there for you. No matter what."

"I can promise you that here, right now," Luke told her, putting extra emphasis on the last words. "I will always be there for you."

Lorelai believed, she knew he would not go anywhere, coming to this trail with her, fighting for her, was proof to that, but still, there was this void. She tilted her head to her right, and watched him for a moment, how stern his face expression was, she then said, "Don't you want to promise that in front of our family and friends and the law and God or whatever power there might be that you'll always be there for me? That you'll love me forever, in the good and the bad times."

"Don't they know that already?"

"Luke, just answer," she insisted.

"Marriage doesn't change anything, you said so too." Luke frowned, shaking his head.

"So, why not do it when it doesn't change anything?" Lorelai pulled her shoulders up to her ears, it was not quite a shrug, but it came close to it. She challenged him, yet she tried making marriage sound easy. It was a natural step for her.

"Lorelai," Luke exhaled deeply, looking at her. An intense eye-contact developed, which none of them wanted to end. It was like a fight for power; who would make the other give in first? Lorelai studied the blue of his eyes, which seemed unsure, studying her, judging her to a certain degree. She tried her best to make him understand she wanted this. She was not unsure, there was no doubt about this decision, it was not a decision on the whim. She was not acting head over heels, she was certain.

In the end, Lorelai always wore Luke down, he gave in by checking one last time, "You're sure about this?"

"Yes," Lorelai answered straight, not adding anything to it.

"OK." Luke paused and swallowed hard. "So, what now? We're gonna plan a big wedding for next summer?" He raised his eyebrows.

"It sounds weird to be engaged that long." Lorelai wrinkled her nose; her shoulders fell down, she had grown tense waiting for Luke's final reaction.

"Yeah, kind of," Luke agreed. He was unable to maintain eye-contact and started kneading his fingers, which rested in his lap. This was new territory, even though they had been there before. They had been engaged before, it didn't end well though, and maybe that was which made it sound so scary.

"Even being engaged sounds-" Lorelai trailed off. She was struggling to put into words how it felt. It was something between weird, unbelievable and crazy.

"Out of place?" Luke offered her a few words,

"I know." She nodded. "Being engaged is for the young kids, but not for oldies like us, who have been through so much already."

"Right." Luke agreed, finally looking up again. He stopped kneading his fingers, while Lorelai picked up the kneading now. On the ring finger on her left hand, there would soon be sitting a ring again.

"Just by what we've been through, we deserve the title of husband and wife," Lorelai declared, clapping her hands together, bringing them to her chest, close to her heart, where all the fond and not so fond memories were stored.

"Absolutely," Luke agreed.

"So, I guess rather sooner than later then? Maybe, we can pull it off this year." Lorelai shrugged, she waited for input from Luke's behalf.

He was ahead of her. Waiting was not his mind anymore. "What about eloping?"

"Luke," she objected, but she didn't get very far because he carried on.

"Las Vegas is not too far," he said. After all, they were in the Sierra Nevada, which was close to Nevada with its city of sins.

"You want to get married by Elvis?" She narrowed her head at him, staring at him with disbelief. She would have never taken him for that kind of person.

"It doesn't have to be Elvis," Luke said dryly.

"Luke, that ain't us. I mean, it sounds like me, but not you." She frowned, gesturing between them. "You hate a city like Las Vegas."

"Well, the gambling seems pointless. The shows are ridiculous. The hotels are too big, too fancy, and too expensive. And all you can do there is shop. And let's not forget that it's a city within a desert, which is an experiment gone wrong." Luke could so easily fall back into ranting mode. All these arguments reminded her of a similar rant she had heard so often before.

"Like Manhattan," Lorelai interjected, almost chuckling.

"Exactly."

"And that's where you want to get married? In an experiment gone wrong in the desert? Without any family present?" Lorelai asked.

"Liz is caught up in the vegetable cult anyway."

"And April? You want her to miss your wedding? I want Rory to be there. And I should probably bite my tongue for saying this, but I want my mother there." She wanted to do it the right way, not excluding anyone, who was important.

"That's news."

"You only get one set of parents." Lorelai shrugged, half of her parents would not be able to see her getting married anyway. "She deserves to see me getting married. She was the one putting that thought into my head in the first place."

"That thought?" Luke interjected.

"She kept telling me that you and I are nothing as long as we are not married. And I kept telling her we were permanent but she wouldn't believe me." Lorelai sighed, closing her eyes for a second, and then carrying on, "And after all, she was right. We were not as stable as we might have thought."

"She was interfering. Planting these thoughts in your head," Luke argued.

"Classic Emily Gilmore. Messing things up." Lorelai rolled her eyes; Luke was right indeed, Emily Gilmore was twisting and turning things the way she pleased.

"That's no news."

Lorelai rolled her eyes because this time around Lorelai was convinced there was something else behind Emily's pushing and interfering. "Luke, that's my mother's way of telling me she accepts us. She going house-shopping for the empire you're going to build or she accusing us of being roommates or booty buddies?"

"Booty buddies? When did she refer to us a booty buddies? What are booty buddies?"

"Not important." Lorelai waved it off. "All of that is my mother's weird way of giving us her approval. She wants you to be her son-in-law. I think, dad and she accepted you in my and therefore in their life. Otherwise, there wouldn't be a file with your approximate death date."

"That can also act as a countdown, so she knows how many days she still has to deal with me."

"Probably both true." Lorelai said, "Bottom line, she wants me to have what she had with my father. And despite my complicated relationship with my parents, these two were truly there for each other. Always, no matter what. Even when the worst things happened to her and their only daughter left them. Their marriage survived it. My mom wants me to have that too. She finally accepted who would make me happy, and she did everything in her power to make it last."

"Still a little over the top. She was intruding, overstepping boundaries."

"There was no other way for Emily Gilmore. Boundaries? Not for her." Lorelai looked at her lap and then said, "I know we're permanent. Even if we're not getting married, I know we're meant to last. I know we will last. But the whole world expects us to break-up anytime because we're not wearing rings, which is stupid. We've been together for nine years."

"It's longer than nine years," Luke said

Lorelai had to agree, sighing; she did not like thinking of their time apart, "Of course."

"It's two decades."

For the last twenty years, they had been involved in some way, dancing around each other, not seeing what everybody else had seen all along, that they were meant to be. "It feels like we should be married already," Lorelai said.

"Yes." Luke agreed, meeting her gaze, a smile playing on his lips, the small smile, which Lorelai liked so much because he only shared it with her and no one else.

Lorelai had no clue how they looked like, gazing at each other with smiles on their faces, but to some strangers, they must have looked like two idiots because they were not saying or doing anything, just staring. Eventually, she managed to find some words and said, "Will you finally move your butt so I can kiss you?"

"Only if you move yours too, partner," Luke teased and got off his chair, and helped Lorelai to her feet by stretching his hand in her direction, sweeping her to her feet and crushing her against his chest. In a matter of seconds, his lips were pressed on hers, their arms embracing the other, drawing the other just a little closer to finally seal the deal with a kiss. A lot of passion unloaded once, she felt Luke's tongue on her bottom lip seeking for entrance, which she granted him. His tongue caressed hers and she returned the favor eagerly.

The kissing found its natural end by catching their breaths, parting to come up for air, panting heavily, but still being enveloped in each other's arms. Again smiles were playing on their lips, and because she could Lorelai raised on her tiptoes to brush her nose against Luke's, which made them both chuckle.

Only reluctantly they let go of each other, but it was the only rational thing to do; it was getting late and they were bound to hike tomorrow again. Going to sleep after their zero-mile-day, which had turned into a two-miles-day plus tackling their biggest subjects on their agenda was a relief. It was the only reasonable thing to; the subjects discussed asked for some intimacy. Since sex had been ruled out, Lorelai was happy to be just close to Luke, really close, closer than she had been ever since they had set foot on this trail.

It felt good; her head was resting on his shoulder, her left hand rested on top of his chest, right above his heart. She could feel the heartbeat under her palm; it was beating fast, faster than she had expected it to. She was halfway to dreamland, but judging by his heartbeat Luke was still wide-awake

Only seconds later, she sensed his head moving and then he pressed a kiss to her forehead. She smiled to herself, completely content with herself and the world, but for most with Luke being her fiancé again. It was her husband-to-be, who whispered, "Lorelai, you have to move."

"No, comfy," she said and snuggled further into his side, making her point by this.

"I'm not your pillow," Luke protested.

"Yes, you are," she argued back, moving her left hand to his side, and hugging him tightly to her, wrapping herself around him.

"No, you've got the one with the owls for that," Luke argued back, but Lorelai did not agree with him. Luke was better than any pillow, even with owls on it, could ever be. She told him so, "You're better."

"Your owls will be sad when you abandon them like that," Luke reminded her, trying every trick to make her move her head away from his arm.

Apparently, Luke's arm had gone limp otherwise he would not try so hard to make her move. It must be very uncomfortable to him. That was why Lorelai decided to move her head to his chest, not cutting off the circulation in his arm any longer. In the process of resettling, she reached for the pillow behind her, threw it at his face and added, "You can take it. I'm staying here."

Lorelai snuggled further down, so her head could come to rest on his chest, where she pressed her lips against his shirt-covered chest. It reminded her of their first night together at his apartment. In a way, this was a first time too. It was the beginning of their married life, which made this their first night as husband-and-wife-to-be.

Luke gave in by sighing, and by his movements, Lorelai figured he was adjusting the pillow behind his head. Soon, she could feel his lips on her forehead again, which brought another smile to her lips. He could make her smile so easily, drawing her away from the wonderful dreamland, since reality was a good place too.

"You're good?" She asked.

"More than good."

"I mean with the situation." Lorelai wanted to assure herself; no more doubts, she didn't want to push him anywhere he didn't want to be. She lifted her head to meet his gaze.

"I like the situation very much." He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear.

"No, I mean with us, you know, what we decided."

"The marriage?" Luke asked, narrowing his eyes.

"No that, but you're good with that too?"

"More than good. What is the other thing I should be good with?"

"No kids?" She said, but correcting her instantly, "Well no more kids?"

"Yes, I'm good with that." He went with his fingers through her hair, but the soothing gesture did not convince Lorelai, she frowned, waiting for a 'but', which did not come. He said, "I can't imagine sharing you now. We're closer than ever" Lorelai stirred in his grip. "And I don't want to wait another 18 years to do that." He leaned forward to kiss her. "You are all I'll ever need."

Lorelai nodded to everything he said, giving in to the kiss. She believed every single word he spoke. They were truthful with each other, especially when Luke returned the question, "You're good with all of that too?"

Again, Lorelai nodded. "Yes," she said and with a sigh she dropped her head to his chest again, the heart beating still fast, but she could not deny that this kind of conversation made her excited too. It took her longer than expected to fall asleep even though she had been exhausted, the talking had burnt a lot of her energy.

On their zero-mile-day, they hiked two miles on the trail, but in their relationship, they moved forward what felt like two thousand miles. That was a success and big milestone, which would define their future for good.

* * *

 _I hope you enjoyed this chapter, in which big decisions for the future were made. Lorelai and Luke are getting married. Yay!_

 _Also, I feel like a few of you struggled with Lorelai and Luke's decision on kids; I hope this conversation made it more understandable for some of you. I hope you're good with that; Lorelai and Luke are, which is the most important part._

 _See you all soon, and in the meantime, please let me know what you think. (:_


	11. Life

_Before we dive into the next chapter - it's by far the longest chapter of the entire story - I want to talk about the fact that Lorelai and Luke decided against having (another) kid. I get why you are all upset, I was too_ disappointed _when we found out there were no children in the revival, and it took me_ awful _long time to accept that fact. Writing this story helped me to come to terms with that. To be honest, now I get why they don't need children to be happy. Maybe, slowly you all will find your peace with that too, or you wait for me to have more time and write the kids in the revival AU, which I have been thinking of for a long time now._

 _Anyway, enjoy the read!_

* * *

 **Chapter 11: Life**

Their hiking pace increased day by day, more and more, managing more miles than they had anticipated in the beginning. It seemed like the more of their issues had been discussed and therefore the more baggage had been taken off their shoulders, the easier it was to handle the actual weight on their shoulders. The backpacks didn't bother them much anymore because their muscles had grown stronger. Their growing muscles weren't the only changes they had experienced on the trail, their skin was darker and their hair longer too. The longer they were on the trail, the more experienced they got.

The knowledge of being fully committed to each other not only helped with tackling the hiking, but it also helped talking about all the little issues, which were still standing between them. Bringing them up was easier than before, not a real hassle anymore. There was no need for a built-up and they would talk about them while hiking.

Even though bringing up was easy, tackling the individual issues was at first not so easy. Their forwardness was new to them and communication needed a little time to get as honest and efficient as they wanted and needed it to.

"Most people, who are married have a joint bank account. Is that something we'll do now too?" Luke asked. He brought it up because if they were mingling their two lives into one for sure this was the first thing he could think of.

"Huh," Lorelai replied. "Most people to that, don't they?"

"I guess." Luke shrugged. "Liz and TJ do."

"Sookie and Jackson too." She bit her lip, which was always a sign she was thinking. "And Michel and Frederic."

"Babette and Morey too?" Luke asked.

"Absolutely. Babette keeps tab on Morey's spendings," Lorelai said, which made Luke drop his jaw. He would have never guessed that Morey was the one, who would spend money carelessly. On the other hand, he was a musician and musicians were not known for being the most responsible ones when it came to money. Lorelai presumed, "Ever since he discovered Amazon and the delivery guys finally find their way to Stars Hollow and don't get lost on the way, his LP collection has grown. A lot."

"I have to check it the next time I can't get out of one of Babette's offers from some tea at their place." Occasionally, Babette was still able to ambush him in after a long shift at the diner, and ordered him in for a mandatory cup of tea, which she could share with her favorite neighbor. Somehow, he always ended up fixing something in the house, which left him wondering if she really enjoyed his company or just his handy skills. Lorelai assured him it was the later, but Luke was sure she just wanted to make him feel better.

"Remind him to show you his Beach Boys collection. You'll love it," she said.

"Morey and the Beach Boys?" This was another unbelievable revelation of the day.

"I was just as surprised as you." Lorelai raised her hands in the air.

"Huh." Luke needed a moment to wrap his head around this, in the meantime, Lorelai brought their conversation back to business by asking, "You want a joint account?"

"It's something we should discuss," Luke said straight-forward. Marriage was so often accompanied by a joint bank account.

"Always deflecting," Lorelai pointed out and narrowed her eyes at him.

"I'm fine with either. I don't want to force an opinion on you," Luke said and it was true. He was fine with either. Joint bank accounts or separate accounts wouldn't make a difference to him.

"But you should be entitled to your own opinion. I want to hear it. We are in this together, it's not just me and my opinion."

"It's OK either way, I have no preference at all."

"Oh, come on, that can't be true! You must have slight preference somewhere in you."

"No, there's not," he retorted and at the same time searching inside him if he liked one way or the other better. He couldn't tell.

"Tell me, Luke!" Lorelai insisted, getting impatient, and by the tone, she used on him she was definitely reaching frustration too.

"Why don't you tell me yours?" He asked, which granted him more time to make up his mind. He should have done it before bringing it up. It was a mistake to get into this conversation unprepared. It was never a good idea to face Lorelai with something big unprepared. It was better to call her off-guard than the other way around.

"I can't. That would be just like we always do things. I tell you what I think and you'll get along with it," Lorelai said, gesturing between them back and forth with her hand.

"That's not true." Luke shook his head, but he was painfully reminded of their fall-out in the summer in the dinner. The deal they had struck that she would make the decision and he would follow along.

"So, basically, neither you nor I will talk about our thoughts?" Lorelai asked. Luke could hear the frustration in her voice clearly now, as she said, "This is ridiculous. We can't deal with things like that. This is not how things should work between us. If I ask you about your opinion, you can say it."

Luke paused and didn't answer right away. He searched for an answer to the big issue. A joint bank account. The thought made him uneasy. He pondered for a while, but then he decided to make up his mind. That was what Lorelai asked him to. He was wary in his use of words, but eventually, he said, "If I would have to decide I would rather and only if it's OK with you-"

"Luke!" Lorelai warned him, when he didn't say it straight out.

"I would prefer separate accounts," Luke said, clenching his jaw. He prepared himself for an outburst of disagreement.

Lorelai's shocked reaction came like a shot, "What?"

"It's not set in stone," Luke instantly said, raising his hands in defeat. "Remember it's only something I lean toward. I'm still fine with either option."

"No." Lorelai wrinkled her nose; a frown was on her face too. "No, I do prefer separate accounts as well, I'm just surprised you too."

"Why?" It was Luke, who frowned now.

"You're more of a traditional guy."

"I'm not!" The way Lorelai said traditional felt like an insult.

"It took you an awfully long time to accept girl's soccer," Lorelai reminded him.

"Just because of the way they played." The aggressiveness the girls showed during a game was not to Luke's taste.

"That what you keep telling yourself," Lorelai scoffed.

"You've been to their games. You've seen how they play. We both were shocked, covering our eyes. I remember someone hiding behind me." Luke narrowed his eyes at her.

"Your memory is blurred." Lorelai tried to twist and turn facts, waving her hand at him. "I didn't hide. I held onto your arm though."

"Knew it." Luke rolled his eyes; Lorelai certainly had to have the last word on most of their conversations.

"Those strong arms need some attention once in a while," she said, reaching out to pat his biceps.

"We're having a serious talk here. No distractions, please." He nudged her hand away, shooting her a warning glance. His jaw got all tense again because he had to suppress a smile. He liked she was so playful again. And while this conversation was serious, it was a nice change to see old habits coming back to life.

"So, where do we stand on this? Do we keep our money separate?" Lorelai asked. "Just like we did in the past years?"

"It worked, didn't it?" Luke asked back. They had been living in the same household for years now and had managed with separate accounts. She paid for the TV and the Internet; he took care of electricity. They split up the groceries. Every other invoice was taken care by who ever put the hands on first. He refused to pay for any nonsense concerning Paul-Anka, while she was not willing to invest in yet another shelf. She didn't see how they needed more storage room, but she still brought along more stuff whenever she went out shopping.

"Yeah. Yeah," Lorelai trailed off, and it set of Luke to worry.

"You don't sound convinced," he observed, knowing that her vague answer was a sign she was thinking, coming up with a new thought.

"We should discuss the big stuff though," she said, "Like huge investments. I don't want you going around and give people 30,000 dollars without telling me. Even if we're having separate bank accounts, it's still our money once we're married, right?"

"Why would I be giving 30,000 dollars to anyone?" Luke didn't understand where she was getting with this. It was not like he was likely to give such a big amount of money to anyone. April for her college, but other than that there was no one he would entrust with such a load of money.

"You gave them to me while you were married."

"That was different." He shook his head. It was such a long time ago; he never thought of his first marriage or Nicole. It slipped his mind ever so often that he had been married before. The only marriage he could remember were the last years with Lorelai. They had been married for so long, getting the ring on her finger was just a formality to him now.

"It was not," Lorelai insisted.

It made Luke shake his head even more. She didn't get it. It was different because she was different. She had always been the one. Even when he was married, even when they were just friends. It was her, no matter what. "It was different to me, OK?" He said, maybe a little too harsh, because Lorelai's eyes widened.

"Alright," Lorelai said at last. "Separate accounts it is."

"Thank God," he sighed. "I really don't want to know how much you spend on shoes. Or clothes in general."

"It's not that bad," she assured him, but what she added in sing-sang afterward made him uneasy. "Nothing over budget. Well, not very often."

Luke glared her, which prompted Lorelai to smile. It was the triumphant smile she flashed him when she managed to upset him. It was a game to her, seeing how easily she could make him frown. He was used to it, mostly.

He enjoyed her teasing and talking more than Lorelai singing "I'm gonna be (500 miles)" all over again. Even though, he had to admit that song kind of was stuck in his head by now too. He caught himself moving his head to the beat, and once he had started humming quietly, but thankfully Lorelai had not noticed. She sang the song over and over again, almost never changing to different songs; she was like a broken record.

"Don't you get ever tired of the song?" Luke asked at one point.

"Sometimes, but after some time it gets good again. Marshall Eriksen was right with that," Lorelai answered, and kept on singing.

"Who?"

All Lorelai did was smile at him, not giving him an answer. Presumably, it was some reference, which even with an endless explanation he would not be able to understand. He was relieved she saved both of them time by keeping the speech to herself.

Instead, Luke brought a different subject up, "Once I 'm back, Jess and I will try to get Liz and TJ out of the vegetable cult. We'll drive up there and just take them with us."

"Like kidnapping?" Lorelai interjected with a frown.

"These vegetable people are keeping them as hostages in some way, so…," Luke trailed off, shrugging her doubts off. The vegetable cult didn't sound like an organization, which was run according to the law. It sounded more like the opposite since they kept people in their cult against their wills.

"Right," Lorelai said. "How will you do that?"

"Not sure, talk to them, I guess. And if that's not working then I'll just tell them the craziest TJ stories, hoping that will do the trick and scare the crazy cult people," Luke said. It was no secret he was not the biggest fan of his brother-in-law. TJ drove him up a wall, and he would have never guessed this guy would stick, but Liz and TJ were a match made in heaven, or according to Luke made in hell because one was crazier than the other. However, and Luke didn't know why and how each of their crazy attitudes balanced the crazy of the other out. It was indeed a great match.

"Probably," Lorelai snickered.

She didn't add any more, which frustrated Luke. He was trying hard to let her in, let her be part of his plans, but she didn't get the hint. He had to spell it out for her by asking, "Will you come with?"

"What?" Lorelai turned her head in his direction, watching him with surprise; the eyebrows arched and her mouth was slightly open.

Her confused look flustered Luke, and at first, he stumbled, "I thought, I- I thought I was supposed to include you in more. This is me offering."

"Oh." Lorelai closed her mouth and averted her gaze back on the trail in front of her. Luke was sure she was not minding her step because the path was unusually even.

"I know you're not a big fan of Jess and spending a whole day with him is not your idea of a perfect day. But really getting Liz and TJ out of the vegetable is not how I imagine my perfect day either. Jess has changed, and I thought you two have warmed to each other," Luke told Lorelai, whose opinion of Jess had improved over the years, ever since Luke had pointed out they shared the same twisted sense of humor. However, she still was quick at jumping back to her initial bad vibe she got from him.

"It's not that." Lorelai rejected. "I know he's not that teenage punk anymore." She paused, probably trying to hold back an eye roll, but then she asked with a frown, "Is Doula in that vegetable cult too?"

"Yeah, that's why I want them outta there." Luke sighed. The thought of his little niece being at the cult bothered him the most. A nine-year-old should be somewhere else, preferably in a proper school.

"We should get her out of there." Lorelai agreed and smiled. "Thanks for including me."

"That is what this is about, right?"

"It is." Her smile grew wider, and after a moment she proceeded singing, and Luke couldn't help himself from nodding his head to the beat, stealing glances at her. They were on the right track. Only weeks ago, days ago, this subject would have raised a disagreement, somehow. But now, they were discussing things with each other, and oddly, it felt good. Luke did not know why he had been so reluctant in the first place.

That feeling prompted him to raise a subject, which Lorelai had been defensive about whenever he had brought it up in the weeks before their trip. But with their new kind of understanding, Luke dared to bring it up, "Lorelai?"

"Yeah?" She stopped singing again, flashing him another one of her smiles. He knew it would fade soon.

"I kinda lost track of time out here." He started off with a neutral statement, being as considerate about this as possible.

He didn't want to spoil her good mood, which she was definitely in because with a cheerful voice she said, "That's alright, as long as you keep track of our track." She waved it off, and added, "See what I did there? A joke, a hiking joke."

"Got it." He forced himself to smile for a moment, but then he brought the subject up, which would at least scratch her mood. "Anyway, wasn't it Rory's birthday recently?"

"Two days ago, yeah." Her voice sounded shaky, not as cheerful anymore, but not upset or angry.

"Are you OK?" Luke asked. He knew Lorelai and Rory were not speaking at the moment, but the reason of their fight was still in the unknown.

"It's not the first birthday we spent apart," Lorelai said, and Luke still could not detect how she was feeling about this.

"But you're not talking," he insisted; he could barely remember a time, in which Lorelai and Rory did not talk, especially since they usually talked a mile a minute.

"Had one of those birthdays in the past too," Lorelai replied, shrugging.

She was not taking it seriously, and it annoyed Luke. She was acting like it was not a big deal, but to him, it was a big deal. Lorelai and Rory only stopped talking to each other when something major was up. He exhaled deeply, "Lorelai."

"It's not like it was a special birthday. She turned 32, Luke, it's just a birthday," she said, again shrugging.

"Did you send her some birthday wishes?" Luke asked bluntly.

"Yes." Lorelai said, "I sent her an e-mail. I even included you into it."

"OK. Um, thank you." Luke narrowed his eyes, not sure what else to respond to that. He wanted this conversation to go in a different direction, but Lorelai molded in any way she wanted.

"No problem," Lorelai answered, a weak smile playing on her lips.

"Can we talk about it?" Luke asked straight forward. He could no longer dance around the question, which rattled around in his head.

"It?" Lorelai frowned, not understanding where he was getting with this.

"That thing between Rory and you, which you wouldn't tell me about. Are you done processing it? Can we talk about it?" Luke asked.

For a moment, Luke thought Lorelai was considering it, but then she answered, "Not yet."

Luke was about to push back, pressing for an answer, but then decided otherwise when he remembered the rules they agreed on. They would accept when one of them did not want to discuss a certain subject. He simply said, "Fine." However, he could not hold back the bitter undertone in his voice.

They went along the trail, without talking, without Lorelai's singing; the conversation about Rory had obviously spoilt her mood. They watched the vista and listened to the sounds, which nature had to offer. Mostly, it was the wind blowing through the branches and leaves, making them rattle. But they also could hear some bugs flying or a bird humming.

Luke's thoughts drifted off somewhere else, he was taken surprise when he heard Lorelai speaking up again, "I will tell you. Just not now."

"Alright," Luke answered, nodding, and then bringing his attention back to his surrounding. Somewhere in the distance, he could hear a bird crow. Usually, it would sound lonely and like a warning to him, but it was more of reassurance to not trust the doubts forming in his head.

If Lorelai was not ready to talk about her issue with Rory it was alright indeed. Her keeping this from him did not mean Lorelai and he were in some way less committed to each other. Luke would know some time soon; the trail was not yet over, and there were other issues, which could be discussed in the meantime.

The next issue while seeming random needed to be addressed too; it was obvious, at least to him when he looked at her, and it was probably the other way round for her. The change of their appearances. "Do you think we lost weight?" Lorelai asked.

Without a scale present, Luke was not sure and shrugged. They should have burned some fat, but at the same time, they had put on muscles, which were heavier than fat. Maybe they even had put on weight, who knew?

"I hope we did," Lorelai sighed. "You know, I've gained a pound or two over the years."

"I don't see that," Luke replied, not necessarily talking sweet. She hadn't changed a bit to him; she was still as beautiful as she could be to him. A pound or two more, who really cared about that.

"Take a better look at me!"

"Maybe a pound of knowledge, but that's it," he said after checking her body with a look from head to toes. He was pleased what he saw. The dirty hiking boots at her feet, the baggy trousers, the flannel and the vest to keep her warm, and a black beanie on the head. He liked the natural look on her, without any makeup, which made her freckles show up more.

"You quoting Frankie Bergstein to me is sexy as hell, you know that?" Her face stayed straight, not a hint of amusement or teasing, but her eyes gave her away, they usually did. Before Luke was able to respond, she changed topics by asking, "And you? You gained some weight?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Wearing those baggy shirts doesn't cover the extra pounds as well as you might think." She pointed a finger at him like she was demonstrating a case at court.

"I have no idea what you're referring to." Luke tried playing dumb. If he let her off the hook of actually acknowledging she had put on weight, she could easily do the same for him, but Lorelai wouldn't be Lorelai Gilmore if she would not play by her own rules.

"Oh, come on," she reproached.

"What? All my shirts still fit."

"Just because I make you throw some away every now and then".

"The old ones, yeah."

"I might say they are old and washed-out but that is just my mindful way to get rid of them. In reality, they are too tight around the shoulders," Lorelai clarified. "By the way, that's an awfully weird place to put on weight."

"All the compliments," Luke scoffed; his feelings were not really hurt, but he wanted her to have a bad conscience. Giving into the banter and teasing.

"You started this, Mister," she said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"So what, we both gained weight." Luke brought his arm up in the air.

"I wasn't complaining in the first place."

"Is this like war on Christmas all over again?" Luke joked.

"With body shaming? Probably."

"You're still beautiful to me, alright?" Luke said, at last, giving her the words she had probably wanted to hear all along when bringing up that subject. "I mean, there are not many women your age, who still look as good as you."

Lorelai, however, picked up on something else, asking, "You look at other women?"

"You're missing the point," Luke grunted, which brought a smile to Lorelai's lip. It didn't last long though, because a strong gust of wind came up, taking them by surprise. The air was hitting in their faces, almost feeling like a whip stroke in the face.

Out of reflex, Luke brought his hand up to his cap, holding it tight. The hair flying into her face, however, distracted Lorelai; she forgot about her black beanie, which had loosened due to the strong wind. Right as Luke wanted to warn her, the hat flew away, getting dragged away to a steep, rocky area, where it would be too dangerous to go. It would forever be lost there, living the wild life.

Gasps and moans followed, but once Lorelai understood there was nothing she could do about the hat, she carried on and was glad she had not been wearing the hat with the cute little dog on it. The black hat was lost for good, but she still had the gray one to act as a substitute. Finally, she could prove to Luke why bringing three different hats was so useful after all.

After the dreadful loss, Luke granted Lorelai time for her personal thoughts, probably grieving the short life of the black beanie. The mourning did not last long because not shortly after, she cleared her throat and just like the wind earlier the topic she chose to discuss caught him off guard. He had no idea where it was coming from, she said, "I want to redecorate the house."

"And get rid of the couch?" Luke offered. That they had kept a couch from Liz and TJ was still a miracle to him. Lorelai and Luke would usually make fun of Liz and TJ's taste concerning most of the things and decisions in life, but as Liz and TJ announced they had a spare couch, which Lorelai and Luke could have when their old one fell apart after Paul-Anka had accidentally ruined it by chewing on the fabric once too often, Luke was surprised that Lorelai had agreed to take it. For two years, they had the couch Liz and TJ had given them, and ever since he waited for Lorelai to wake up with the sudden urge to buy a new couch because she couldn't stand the stripes or the red color of it.

"The couch? Why the couch? I love the couch. What's wrong with the couch?" Lorelai said quickly, her eyes growing big.

"Nothing." Luke chuckled; apparently she still really liked the couch, otherwise, she wouldn't get as defensive about it.

"OK, you're sure?" She asked, reaching out for his shoulder, which made him lock eyes with her and nod. The couch with the red strips would stay with them.

"Why redecorate? I thought the house was finally the way you wanted it."

"Says the man, who constantly builds more shelves for more storage room," she retorted and let go off his shoulder, but brushed her hand over his forearm first.

"For the stuff you buy," he shot back. Whenever she came back home with a shopping bag, he sighed and asked her where she would store all these things. He had given up to ask why they would need it. Apparently, there was always a use for yet another blouse.

"I'm planning nothing big, I promise. Little changes, which I can do on my own, but you're welcome to help." Lorelai paused, but then tilted her head and added, "I'll probably need your help at some point though."

"What is it?"

"I want to replace a few of the pictures in the house, and replace them with new ones," Lorelai explained.

Luke was surprised. She had made it sound like this was going to be a lot of work, a big project, but this sounded doable, almost like the easiest task she asked him for in years. There had to be a 'but', there was always a catch with Lorelai.

"OK," he said, trailing off, waiting for some additional information Lorelai would provide instantly, "The mantel is full of pictures of Rory and while I promised Rory that the house will always stay her home, I never realized that this is supposed to April's home too."

"What are you talking about?" Luke frowned. April's home was with Anna, or at the campus at MIT, but not with the house in Stars Hollow.

"Luke, the house is your home, which also means our home is April's second home, yet there is not a single photo of her in it. There are hundreds of pictures of Rory and the one where she wears a pumpkin costume is one of my favorites, but I can let go of it if it means that we finally make the house everyone's home. I want some cute little April pictures, and one, in which you are a child. Maybe one with your parents and Liz. You have a niece, who is nine years old and looks absolutely adorable in pictures and yet there's not a single photograph in the house." Luke was about to object, but Lorelai carried on speaking, "I know you don't care about this kind of stuff, but I do and there's a serious misbalance on the mantel in the living room, which I want to change."

Lorelai speech made sense. She was good at arguing and her points were valid. The house was April's home too and he never noticed the misbalance on the mantel. He could not object anything to that because he did not care what kinds of pictures were standing on the mantel. He never paid attention to that kind of stuff, but he would not mind seeing pictures of April in the living room or his little niece Doula. He would have to look for a picture of his parents. Maybe he could ask Liz for one once he had freed her from the vegetable cult.

Agreeing to Lorelai's proposal was fairly easy, an easy issue to cross from the list. A day or two later the discussion of a trickier topic was on their agenda. Yet there was no yelling taking place.

Yelling had not crossed their way so far, but there had been snakes, several spiders, and a lot of bugs. Even a squirrel had crossed their path, but yelling at each other from the bottom of their lungs had yet to appear. They had hissed at each other, they had fought, they had discussed and in the process, they had worked through their issues, but that all had happened without really yelling at each other.

It seemed like the beauty and the silence of nature around them calmed them and their discussions. The trees surrounding them granted them enough privacy when arguing, especially since they talked about the inn's financial situation and Michel leaving.

"Luke, it's my business, not yours," Lorelai hissed at one point of the discussion.

"When we get married, the inn will be mine too," Luke argued back. From a legal perspective, everything that was hers would be his and all that was his would be hers. They had helped each other with their businesses before, he could not understand why she would be stubborn about this.

"No, we'll sign a prenup."

Luke looked at her with shock. A prenup? That was news to him. He would have never guessed she was one of those people.

"What?" She shrugged. "I'm my father's daughter after all."

"Still," Luke shook his head and tried to concentrate on the issue they had been discussing in the first place. He said, "Let me offer some advice."

"What kind of advice can you possibly offer? Michel wants me to expand the inn, which I can't because I have a nature preserve on one side, a fire lane on the other side, and protected wetlands on the third side. There is no space. My hands are tied, there is simply no room for any kind of expansion. End of story." Lorelai had gestured throughout her explanation, after she was finished she crossed her arms in front of her chest.

"What about an annex?" Luke asked. "In town somewhere."

"And suddenly, out of the blue, there is a vacant building right in the middle of Stars Hollow. Luke, really, don't you think I've turned over every possible stone?"

"Have you?" Luke asked again, making sure she did not overlook a possible option. If he remembered correctly he saw a for-sale-sign when they left town, but he was not sure. He tried to remember in front of which house he had seen the sign.

"Yeah, every single one," Lorelai insisted, unfolding her arms and letting them fall down.

Suddenly, he remembered where he had seen the for-sale-sign, and asked, "And why wasn't the retirement home good enough?"

"They sell the old folks' home?" Lorelai's mouth dropped open, she gasped for air.

"Yeah," Luke confirmed, bringing his hand to his beard to go with his fingers through it. He tried to remember the sign, and then a snippet of a conversation Miss Patty had shared with Taylor in the dinner crossed his memory. They were discussing the sale with concern since they had planned to join the retirement home once they were old enough and needed help.

"Why would they do that? Sell the home?"

"The last one died," Luke asked, remembering what Taylor had told Patty just a couple of weeks ago.

"So, our town ran out old folks?"

"Seems like it." Luke shrugged. When he watched the streets, he still could see old people, but apparently, they were not old enough for a retirement home, or at least still fit enough to live by themselves.

"Where will go once we're old? Where will Patty go? And Taylor?" Lorelai asked.

"Taylor will outlive us all. Patty will die in her sleep, and we'll never get old." Luke shrugged again. The thought of living in a retirement home some time had never crossed his mind. He didn't plan ahead that far. He was happy he knew where he would be in a week, which was hopefully safely back in Stars Hollow.

"Sounds about right," Lorelai said, biting her lips, chewing on them. It was a sign that she was debating something over. "I didn't know they sold the old folks' home. Do you know how much they asked for it?"

"Not sure. But I'd say more than you can afford at the moment."

"And then renovating too. I'll need a lot of money," Lorelai agreed, and then sighed. She stopped walking, unfastened the clasp over her chest, and put the backpack to the ground. Within a few seconds and zipping a bag on the side open, she held her phone in her hands, ready to dial.

Luke stopped too, watched her with a frown, and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I have to know how much the building is so I can come up with a plan." She answered and held her phone to her ear. Even though they were in the wild she had a cell reception, which surprised Luke. When Lorelai said, "Hi Kirk" Luke was even more surprised, but listened to her conversation and watched her facial expression, which so often switched to a frown, and then softened again only to get wrinkled seconds later. Ever so often she locked eyes with him, rolling them in a dramatic way, which made him chuckle.

"Yeah. I'm glad Paul-Anka has such a good time. " Lorelai said into the phone. "Huh. - Oh. - Calm down, Kirk. Remember I called you and not the other way round. - Speaking of which, do you know the price for the retirement home? I know you will have good ends in the realtor business. - I know you've been a realtor before - That's why I said so. - Kirk, the price. - Yeah? - That's… - I understand. Is there someone else interested? - Katy Perry? Really? - Poker? - I don't play poker. - Let the nuns know I will place an offer as soon as I come back. - No! Who said so?! - No! No. I'm not looking for a house for me. Luke and I did not break up. - No! - Do you want to talk to him? - OK, spread the rumor of the break-up. - That was sarcastic, Kirk. - No. We are together. - Yes. - No! - Do you want me to ask one of your realtor friends for help? - Thought so. - Yeah. - I want to place an offer for the retirement home - Yes, for the inn. - I agree, a dog pension would be a gold mine. I'll think about it as soon as I bought it. - No. - No. - Kirk, no. Really. We'll talk about it when I'm back, alright? - Give Paul-Anka a kiss from me when you see him. - No. - Bye, Kirk."

Lorelai exhaled deeply, almost wheezing. Luke could understand her well; Kirk could be very exhausting, and judging by Lorelai's part of the conversation and the gestures she had made while talking to him Luke was sure Kirk had not been as the easy help as Lorelai had hoped he would be. "Ugh, Kirk," she moaned.

"Ten 'nos' in one conversation. What kind of crazy questions did he ask you?" Luke asked. He had counted how often Lorelai had denied one of Kirk's ideas.

"You got the hotel for dogs, right? And then he was convinced you and I split up, which is so the opposite that is happening right now." She shook her head in disbelief for a moment, and then presumed, "Anyway, he told me the price for the building, and you're right it's out of my price range."

"Can't you get a loan from the bank?"

"With my current financial situation and the cash-flow of the inn? I charm most of the people, but I have to admit I'm not that powerful," Lorelai sighed and placed the phone back into the backpack, which she put back on her shoulders.

"Are there no other options?" Luke asked, helping her with the backpack by grabbing it in his hands and lifting it off the ground.

"Where are you heading at?" She adjusted the straps of the backpack, and then fastened the straps across her hipbone and her chest.

"Your mother," Luke said. If there was one person, who had enough money on her hands then it was Emily Gilmore.

Lorelai clicked her tongue in disapproval and started walking again, leading the way and setting the pace like she usually would. "There has to be another way."

"I don't think so. If you really want to keep Michel, you'll have to ask her. Besides, you have told Kirk he should place an offer with the nuns. If you can't get a loan, your mother is the only option you have," Luke told her as he caught up with her, walking by her side.

"I could win the lottery," Lorelai suggested and brought her hands up to her head, to adjust the gray beanie she was wearing today, pulling it a little further down her ears.

"You're playing?"

"I could start," Lorelai deadpanned.

"I'm just saying your mother might be the only option for this," Luke reasoned with her.

"I know." Lorelai finally gave in.

"You know I would give the money to you if I had it," Luke said.

"Luke," she sighed.

"I'll be your back-up if something happens. I'll give you 30,000 dollars without hesitation again," Luke said and bumped his shoulder against hers as they walked next to each other.

Lorelai grabbed his hand for a moment to squeeze it. She let go of it, she said, "I will think about it. Let's not worry about money for now."

The topic of the inn had been put aside for the rest of the day; it didn't come up until the next morning at breakfast. Lorelai was sipping her instant coffee, which would grant her the caffeine kick, she desired so much and which made her even more talkative than usual.

Lorelai debated the pros and cons of adding an annex to the Inn in town, and how she would be able to pull it off. Luke listened to everything she had to say and offered his advice at points.

All of her plans were set out, so she would be able to keep Michel with her. "And keeping Michel with me is the most important part. I can't do the inn by myself," she said.

"You miss Sookie, don't you?" Luke asked and shoved another spoon full of oatmeal in his mouth.

"Yeah," Lorelai exhaled and took another sip of her coffee. "It's always been the three of us. Sookie, Michel and me. And Michel and I worked fine together, better than expected, probably thanks to your intervention, but there was always something-" She paused and then corrected herself, narrowing her eyes to the cup in her hands "-someone missing in the last months. With Michel leaving now too, I don't know."

"Do you talk to her at all?" Lorelai hardly ever mentioned Sookie to him; it was almost like she was dead. When she had been still in town, there would not pass a single day, in which Sookie's name would not pop up in one of Lorelai's conversations.

"Every once in a while." Lorelai shrugged. "The cell reception is awful where she is."

"And that was where again?"

Lorelai rolled her eyes because she had explained that to him over and over again, but he wouldn't get it. He didn't want to understand it. The whole experimenting on the farm did not sound like something Sookie would do. Luke was not the only one thinking like that; Michel shared his opinion. It was the first ever issue Michel and he agreed on.

"Will she come back?" Luke asked.

"I don't think so. Not anytime soon." Lorelai gripped the cup tighter, placing it on her knees, which were not longer bruised. The injuries had healed just fine.

"Never would have guessed that," Luke confessed. To him, Sookie had seemed so connected to Stars Hollow, the inn and to Lorelai. She didn't seek the adventure, but he had been wrong after all.

"Me neither," Lorelai agreed.

They lingered in the silence, Lorelai taking sip after sip of the instant coffee; across her face was a sad frown, which would not go away. Normally, coffee would ease her mood and nerves, but it did not do the trick this time around. Luke had to make a move. If Sookie would not come back anytime soon then there was only one other way.

"You should visit her," Luke suggested. "Seeing her in person does not compare to some awkward conversation over the phone."

"What?" Lorelai looked up.

"Make a trip up there. See her. Talk to her. She's your best friend, and you haven't seen her in what one and half years? It's time," Luke said. He had finished his oatmeal and got off his seat to start collecting their breakfast stuff. He did not expect Lorelai to answer to his idea. All he wanted with this was to plant a thought in her head.

When they started hiking soon after, Luke was pleased to see the hiking pace Lorelai set was yet a little faster than the day before. It seemed like all the discussing of their ordinary life issues had worked, made it easier for them to walk along the trail. At the end of the day, the number of miles they had achieved today surprised him.

But also the answer to a question he worked up the courage to ask at dinner that day, "Do you ever think about going to therapy again?" Her eyes widened in shock, so he clarified, "I mean from what I understand it helped you, so maybe you should go see that therapist again."

"I won't ever see her again," Lorelai scoffed.

"She's not the only therapist in the world," Luke shot back. Not every therapist in Connecticut had auditioned for the musical in Stars Hollow." Luke was sure there were other qualified therapists, who could handle a force of nature like Lorelai Gilmore just fine.

Lorelai relaxed at this; she did no longer frown, but her voice still sounded wary, "I don't know. Maybe, I haven't considered it."

"If you decide you want to do it, I'm cool with it." Luke blurted out. "Not that you need my permission."

With a smile on her lips, she narrowed her head, nodding. She remained silent, probably mulling this over. Luke didn't expect her to come up with a final decision, but she surprised him yet again, "Thank you, but I think I'm good now."

They locked eyes, and there it was the easy understanding, for which didn't need any words. They were certainly back on track with their relationship. Certainly back to a natural understanding, which for now didn't need any help from the outside.

* * *

 _Hopefully, you enjoyed this super long chapter, it contained quite a lot of little issues. I hope I didn't overload you with too much information and discussing. Which issue was the most important one in your opinion?_

 _At this point a little shout-out and thanks to Katherine (frazzledsoul), I hope you're reading this, and I hope you know that the little couch scene is just for you and was totally inspired by your hate for the couch in the revival. (;_

 _Also, I'll be visiting a friend for the rest of the week and I'm not sure if I'll be able to update on the weekend. There are not many chapters left, and the left-over chapters are there to wrap things up nicely, so I definitely want to give you the time to read and enjoy the chapters properly._

 _Thanks for reading, and see you all soon for the next chapter._


	12. Intimacy

**Chapter 12: Intimacy**

Soon their hike would be over; they were in their last week, and the number of miles ahead of them was only a double digit anymore. The end was close, and Lorelai looked forward to it. Although she didn't mind the hiking so much anymore, she still would be relieved when she wouldn't have to carry the backpack all day long. She looked forward to some lazy evening in front of the TV.

To her own surprise, she didn't miss the TV as much as she had expected in the first place. It took Luke by surprise too, who checked every now and then if she missed her best friend, who was neither a human nor a dog.

Every time Luke asked her, she denied it. She didn't miss watching TV, nature was enough to watch and her thoughts kept her occupied. Her phone time every evening helped too, even though ever since things between Luke and her were so good, she enjoyed talking to him, really talking to him, instead of wasting her time with her phone.

"We don't talk like this at home," Lorelai said one evening.

"Yeah," Luke sighed, nodding his head in approval. "Life is just so busy."

Lorelai wrinkled her nose in response, then she frowned for a moment. There should be a way to keep this intimacy alive at home. This should not only apply for their hiking selves, but it should be carried along later on. "We could have this at home too."

"Camping once a month?" Luke joked.

"Walking in the wild," Lorelai clarified. "We could even bring Paul-Anka. It's a way to get away from Stars Hollow and our lives. You and me. And our dog."

"Your dog," Luke threw in like he always would.

"Stop saying that. He's ours." Lorelai put emphasis on the pronoun and then reminded him, "Especially, since everything that's mine will be yours once we're married. I wasn't serious about the prenup."

"You weren't?" Luke looked up to meet her gaze.

"No, I say stupid things in the heat of the moment. The prenup was one of them. I know we won't need it, right?" She checked with him.

"I'm not planning on divorcing you. The only way out of this is in a body bag," he grunted.

"How romantic," Lorelai sighed, flashing him a smile, which Luke returned weakly. "Still, Paul-Anka is just as much mine as he is yours."

Luke was defeated by that and nodded his head. He seemed not fully convinced, but it made him shut up for now. The topic had been discussed, and Lorelai was sure their walks in the wild would find their way in their routine. It would probably be not as often as they would need it, but that didn't matter. Even if it was just every other month, it would be enough and a fair change in their life.

Just like the possible change of their lives, Lorelai presumed a change of conversation as well. Her mind jumped from one topic to the other within seconds, which was why it was no surprise that Luke seemed a little flustered when she asked, "Do you think the other 'Wild' girls are far behind us?"

"Not sure." Luke frowned, and then added after taking some time to adjust to the new topic, "Probably a day or two."

"Can we wait for them?"

"Wait for them?" Luke repeated her words. He was apparently still taken by surprise by her request. Some explanation was necessary, which she was happy to provide. "Yeah, I wanna see how they're doing. We're ahead of our schedule. We can wait, right?" She said.

Luke hesitated with answering, which prompted Lorelai to add some more reasoning, hoping she would convince him, "I really want to see them one last time before the trip is over. They were part of the beginning and they should be part of the ending too."

In the end, Luke agreed to Lorelai's proposition. They were indeed ahead of their schedule and their zero-miles-day turned out to be one of the most exhausting days of their trip. They had talked so much, discussed so much, resolved so much. A real zero-miles-day would do them good and was long overdue.

Hashing out their issues came first, but it was a shame they had no chance to embrace the outdoor life fully. When Lorelai suggested Luke could show her the outdoor life properly, he was convinced of another zero-miles-day. After all, he was eager to embrace the possibility of introducing Lorelai to the outdoor life.

The next day, they settled at another lake in this area, where even fishing was permitted. Luke had brought a fishing line and a fishing hook with him, and with the pocket knife he had with him he turned a branch into what could be considered a fishing rod.

Lorelai watched him with anticipation. She got even more excited when Luke trusted her with the knife and she was allowed to work on her own fishing rod. However, Luke got the band-aids and the antiseptic out first, so it would be within reach in case of an emergency.

However, Lorelai managed to work with the knife on the fishing rod without hurting herself. The surprised look on Luke's face was documented with Lorelai's phone, and she was set on sending that picture to April in the evening. His face was priceless.

When they finally started with the actual fishing at the lake, the memory of them standing side by side, looking towards where the fishing hooks were dropped into the water felt familiar. It reminded Lorelai of what she liked to call a part of their early romance. Luke taught her how to fish in her front yard, so she could impress another guy, when in reality the perfect guy was right there standing beside her.

"This time I'm OK that we don't have corks on the hooks," Lorelai said, nudging his side with her elbow.

"You won't get upset if we catch Pinky?" Luke teased her.

"No, not even if we catch Gomer," Lorelai replied, she tried to remember the names of the other fish. "And I won't be upset if it's Pete."

Luke met her gaze and arched an eyebrow, which prompted Lorelai to assure him, "Really, trust me. I'm dying for some meat."

"I'll remind you when we catch Cheryl."

"Cheryl?" Lorelai flashed him a smile, bringing a hand to her chest. She could not believe Luke remembered the names of the fish better than she was able to. "We can't eat Cheryl, she shares the name with the lady, who brought us here in the first place"

They did not catch Cheryl, but a fish, which looked like a Jasper. Lorelai had no problem to eat a fish named Jasper, but she hesitated a little at first. Once Luke instructed her where to put the knife, and therefore putting his hand over hers, she could finally tell why cooking together was supposed to be so intimate.

They chatted over cooking and eating, bonding over their shared experience of fishing. Years ago, Lorelai would have considered fishing as wet, cold and smelly, and yet all of this proved to be correct it was still fun. The delicious meal they shared was worth it. For the first time, they were giving into the wildlife for real, losing themselves in it, and it felt good.

It made her forget about the pain in her body. The pain faded away over time; it was part of her and was not present in her mind all the time. It died away, was only a background feeling anymore, just like Cheryl Strayed had described in the book. It was there, but not present.

Still, she stretched like a cat when she sat too long, bringing her hands behind her back and leaning on the hands to relief her stiff shoulders, and the pain in her lower back. Sitting on the ground reminded her of her aging body.

"Com'ere," Luke said. He was sitting on his chair and jerked his head. Also, he brought his legs closer together, so she could sit on his lap more comfortably.

Lorelai, however, hesitated. "Luke, that's not a good idea. Your body hurts just as much as mine and this won't bring any of us comfort."

"You don't know that until we try." Luke shrugged but challenged her with the way he looked at her.

"Stupid old man," Lorelai muttered as she got up. She was not in the mood for a fight, so she stepped closer to Luke, making sure he was serious. "You're sure?"

"Just sit," Luke insisted and pulled on Lorelai's knee; a few of his fingers were brushing along her inner thigh.

Lorelai rolled her eyes, but she settled across his lap; every muscle hurt as she moved. Luke shifted to adjust to her weight and to find his balance, which made Lorelai express her concern immediately, "See, it was a bad idea."

"Just-" Luke pushed her against his chest; her left side was pressing against him. His right arm was placed across her waist and his left hand pulled her legs closer. "That's better," he said, and he started smoothing his right hand over Lorelai's lower back, giving her as much of a massage as he could do in this position. It was a caress that so easily was done.

Lorelai couldn't remember the last time she had sat on Luke's lap. She always thought she would crash him, which was ridiculous. She leaned her head against his. "This is nice."

She gave into the caress and the intimacy of the moment. The sun had set already, and the darkness crept up on them, giving her the chills. Maybe it was Luke's touch, which brought the goose bumps all over her body; she would never know for sure. She liked how it made her feel, and she had no problem to close her eyes and to start caressing Luke's chest, drawing circles on it and playing with the flannel between her fingers.

One deep breath after the other she drew in, filling her nose with Luke's scent. He smelled good, outdoorsy and manly. Better than at home; the biodegradable soap made him smell compelling to her.

When fumbling with the flannel was not enough anymore, she brought her hands up to his neck and then his jaw, so she could get the skin on skin contact she craved. His facial hair was rough under her palm, but she didn't mind. She cupped his cheek in her right hand and pushed his head in her direction. Finally, they were face to face; her nose was no longer resting close to his ear, but bumping against his nose. Their foreheads were resting against each other, and their lips were almost touching. She could feel his breath on her face, which brought another chill down her spine.

Luke tightened his hold around her, which squeezed her left arm even more between their bodies. She debated whether she should save her trapped arm first or if she should already give into the tension, forgetting about her arm. A kiss was inevitable. It had to happen. She wanted it to happen. It was the only logic task. There was always the option of freeing her arm first and bringing it around his neck, drawing him that one inch closer, totally wrapping herself around him to kiss him.

Before she could make a final decision, a loud hoot of an owl startled her and within the fraction of a second, she jerked her head towards the dark woods behind her, checking if something or someone approached them. After all, being in the wilderness did not compare to being in private. Even though they were alone, it did not mean they were safely at home. They were in public, surrounded by the dark woods, in which the danger could linger just around a corner.

Lorelai could not see anything, but the thought of an animal jumping at them any moment, when they were not paying attention made her uncomfortable. The tenderness of the moment was gone; Luke seemed tense under her weight, turning his head and checking the surroundings too.

They called it a night and got ready for sleep, settling in their sleeping bags.

"Luke?" Lorelai asked into the dark of the tent, Luna the flashlight had been turned off minutes ago. She could not see as well in the darkness of the woods as she could at home. She was not able to tell if Luke had fallen asleep already, usually, he would do so rather fast.

"Yeah?" Luke answered. He was still awake and Lorelai was relieved to hear his voice. She hated it when she had to wake him, since he became extra grumpy when she did.

"I'm cold," she whispered into the dark again, hoping he would get where she was heading with this. She heard him exhale deeply before she felt his arm being put around her waist and his chest pressed against her back. Soon enough he was spooning her, well as good as it was possible with the two separate sleeping bags they were sleeping in.

"Better?" Luke asked into her hair.

She nodded and tried gripping his wrist through the orange sleeping bag, but she failed with the thick material. "Do you think we should have bought that double sleeping bag?"

"It's really nice to not have you kick me at night," he said, giving her hand a squeeze through the material. "So no."

"I'm serious," Lorelai argued while she bent her knees, smoothing over Luke's legs behind her. It felt weird with the two sleeping bags between them, but she couldn't fight the habit. "It would have kept us warmer at night."

"It's the first night you're cold," Luke pointed out, but it was not the truth. She had been cold before; that was why she usually wore a hat at night, but it had not felt right to tell him before.

"The first I told you about," she confessed, turning her head over her shoulder as well as she could.

Luke resettled his arm around her waist and then said, "It would have been a waste of money to buy a sleeping bag for me when I had one already."

His answer was so typical Luke, always watching over money, not spending any cent too much, keeping her from going overboard on shopping, reminding her off reasonable shopping decisions. Lorelai smiled to herself and put her head down again, closing her eyes as she said, "You're right. You're always right."

To that Luke added no more. How could he? She had complimented him in the best way possible and that had been Lorelai's intention after all.

There was a selfish reason behind her sweet talks. She wanted him to be in a good mood when she asked for another day off. Luke was not entirely on board with that kind of proposal for the next day, but they settled for a day with less hiking than intended, which also granted the other "Wild" girls to catch up with them. In the process, Lorelai could use the afternoon to take care of herself. A proper do-over was overdue after their fishing adventure the day before. Lorelai longed for her peach shampoo and her coconut body wash, but the natural soap they had with them would have to do.

"My eyebrows are a mess," Lorelai said after she had dried off. Her hair was still damp, but she wore in a thick pullover again.

"Your what?" Luke asked, stepping up to her, studying her face.

"My eyebrows," she said, pointing towards her face.

Luke ducked his head to look at her properly. He brought his thumbs along her brows, brushing over them and bringing them into place. His hands were still framing her face when he smoothed over her brows once more.

It was intimate being this close to each other, and Lorelai didn't mind the silence they lingered in. There was nothing but his caress and their breaths. Eventually, he said with a rather harsh voice, "They are fine."

Luke let go off her face, but remained close. She argued back, "But they are growing wild and are out of control. I should have brought a tweezer with me."

"You didn't bring a mirror. How would you use the tweezer?" Luke reminded her. "And now your eyebrows have finally caught up with the wild life you're living."

"You know how to talk sweet." Lorelai returned the smile, which was playing on his lips. After all, she was not the only one who liked to tease the other. "And there's always my phone to work as a mirror."

Luke sighed. It was not a secret he was unhappy that she had brought her phone along. "A few more days and then you can get rid of the jungle you're growing between your eyes."

"I knew you could see it." Lorelai whacked his chest, which only prompted Luke to laugh.

"I don't. I was teasing," he muttered, but Lorelai would not believe him, spending all afternoon obsessing over her eyebrows, until Luke handed her a small pair of tweezers from his pocketknife. Lorelai's face lit up instantly, but only until she tried out the tweezer. It did not live up to a real pair of tweezers and did not grip hair well at all. It was a lost cause and frustrated her even more in the end.

Only a few more days until she could take care of her eyebrows, she could not await that moment. In the meantime, she would bring her attention somewhere else like eating the instant camping food, she somehow grew to enjoy over the past days and weeks.

Preparation for food worked like a clockwork after almost three weeks on the trail. The routine did not change much; therefore it could be memorized, known by heart, getting worked into their body, forever in their memory. They knew who had to do what and when. They were a well-trained team and no instructions were necessary anymore.

Some nights, they would joke while they prepared the food. On other nights, the banter would be on just like in Stars Hollow. Making dinner was the most enjoyable part of the day. It was the time to relax. The time to recharge. It was the time of the day, in which no backpacks needed to be carried around. And it was also the time of the day, which gave them the knowledge that the trail and the hiking, which did pain to their bodies, was still far away, sometime the next day. It was the time of the day, in which the walking was behind them.

This particular evening the banter was especially easy and light; laughs filled the air, until Luke suddenly exclaimed, "Damn it!"

Lorelai instantly dropped her task and before she could ask a question she saw the blood in Luke's hand and she froze for a second. She was never good with blood; she could never see it and avoided it at all costs.

However, blood had found its way in her life. She had driven Sookie often enough to the ER and had taken care whenever Rory had bruised knees. Even Kirk had found his way to make her take care of his injuries instead of going to his own mother or Lulu.

The shock in Lorelai's bones only lasted for a second, and then her instincts kicked in and with three big strides she was close to Gary, her backpack. She fished the first-aid kid out of one of the pockets on the side. She also grabbed her violet water bottle and opened it as she took the three strides back to be next to Luke. There was no need for her to have a drink, even though blood always evoked the urge of pouring alcohol into her. The water was meant to clean Luke's wound.

Lorelai kneeled down, so she could take a look at the cut on his pointing finger and then poured the water over it, which made Luke hiss. She dried the wound off with a tissue, which was in the first aid kid, and decided to put some antiseptic on the wound just to be sure everything would heal properly and would not get infected. In the process, Lorelai had to close her eyes every now and then. She hissed herself, but she managed to fish a band-aid out of the bag and placed it securely over the wound. Out of sight out of mind.

Pleased with herself, she lifted her head to meet his gaze. Luke was smiling at her and said, "Thank you."

She returned his smile. Not only was she proud how she could get her head straight when it was necessary, but she also liked to see how Luke appreciated that she conquered her fear of blood.

Fighting against her fear did not compare to saving and caring for a loved one anyway. She would do anything for him. Her partner in life, the man she would soon promise to cherish forever.

Because they were partners now, Lorelai suggested they would split up the weight fifty-fifty. Luke had carried the majority of their equipment long enough and it was finally time Lorelai stepped up too. Since Luke was newly injured, Lorelai was even more eager to help out. Luke did not agree with any of that, but Lorelai fought back, reminding him partners should share the baggage equally.

Splitting the weight sounded in theory easier than it was in reality. Even though her muscles had grown in the past weeks, they were not prepared for that kind of baggage on her shoulders. Lorelai struggled a lot during the day, which made her hiking pace slow down a lot. So much that the other "Wild" girls actually caught up with them.

They shared dinner, and it was a nice change to have some other human contact. Lorelai was even able to show off her skills of starting a bonfire by using just a flint stone and not a lighter. The girls awed and marveled at her skills.

The light of the bonfire, which they settled around, provided the perfect atmosphere to exchange the stories of their wild life. By the stories the other girls told, Lorelai was glad they were still alive. There had been injuries, ugly encounters with animals and some other malfunctioning of the expensive hiking equipment. They discussed it at all, even their trail names.

"What is ours?" Lorelai asked, reaching out for Luke's knee.

The girls exchanged looks with each other; grins spreading over their faces. It was Allie, who threw her blonde hair over her shoulder and announced, "The old married couple, which isn't married."

"Oh boy," Luke sighed deeply, bringing his hand over Lorelai's, giving it a pat and then whacked it away. "This is my cue. I'm gonna go to bed."

"Hon," Lorelai tried to persuade him otherwise, but Luke waved it off. He got up and reached for her hand to sweep her up to her feet. He leaned closer so only she would be able to catch his words. "It's alright, stay. You need the girl talk. Take the seat, better for an old wife like you"

Lorelai appreciated how well Luke knew her, and yet never failed to make her smile. Not only was he considerate enough to give her some alone time with the "Wild" girls, who of course drove him crazy, but he also didn't fail to mock her. "Thank you," she whispered.

In his Luke's kind of fashion, he waved that off too, saying, "It's no big deal."

It only made Lorelai smile wider, reaching out for his shoulder like she so often did. Only after going on this trip she recognized how much she needed that strong shoulder in her life. He was her rock, giving her safety, and soon she would be able to call him her husband, finally, after all these years it would happen.

"Good night," she said, and because she could she pressed a kiss on his lips, not entirely sure why she did it. Maybe to show off in front of the girls, maybe to express her devotion to him. Maybe it was both, but it didn't matter because the kiss was only intended to last a second or two.

However, Luke responded to the kiss with more eagerness than Lorelai had expected him to. He pressed his lips to hers again as soon as she parted from his, which made her gasp, but giving into the kiss, smiling against his lips. They had not kissed much on the trail, not like this, and not with anyone watching. Even in their normal life, they hardly kissed when someone else was around. It was not their style, not Luke's style. which was why Lorelai was even more surprised.

"Tell them," he whispered against her lips when they finally parted from one another. With one squeeze of her forearm, he left them, saying, "Night, ladies."

Lorelai turned her head, watching him fetch Luna the flashlight and go away. She was stunned, but she sat down eventually, facing the other four girls, who had the biggest grins on their faces. She could tell they were holding back. Lorelai wondered who would crack first. It was Brenda, who adjusted her glasses and blurted out, "And why exactly are you not married?"

"I-" Lorelai laughed, suddenly understanding why Luke wanted to escape a conversation like that. Before Lorelai could answer though, Ellory, the Asian woman, pointed out, "You sure do act like married people."

Lorelai smiled politely, and said, "We've known each other for a long time now."

"Even more reason to finally put a ring on your finger," Allie said, pointing to her left hand.

"Doesn't he want that? I mean look at you. You're a gorgeous woman. If I was a man I would want everyone to know you're mine," Tracey said, frowning. Lorelai smiled to herself; Tracey never failed to get straight to the bottom of things.

"Men are mysteries, really," Brenda sighed, which granted her a round of applause from the other women.

"It's such a pity you are not married," Allie said, sighing. "Your trail name would be so much handier without the extra 'which isn't married'."

"Yes," Ellory agreed. "Shame it's not true."

Before any of the other women could toss in another subject to the conversation, Lorelai cleared her throat and said, "Actually, girls, I have some news."

All four of them, Allie, Tracey, Brenda, and Ellory looked at her with anticipation, straight towards her. Again it was Brenda, who adjusted her pair of glasses and demanded, "Spill!"

Suddenly, Lorelai felt nervous. She had not told anyone the news. For now, it had been some sort of secret agreement between Luke and her, and giving away that piece of information was a big step. It was the first time, the outside world, the world outside of Luke and her, could acknowledge their decision. Lorelai was eager to share it, yet a little hesitant. Eventually, she revealed, "I'm getting married."

Their reactions came thick and fast, granting Lorelai no space to respond to any of their exclaims. She enjoyed them and leaned back to watch the girls' excitement over this. They were the first people to know and even though she had only met them not quite three weeks ago, it felt good to share this piece of information with them first. She would most likely not see them ever again, yet they would be always connected by this incredible experience.

"Seriously?" Allie asked, to which Lorelai nodded.

"Woah!" Ellory mouthed, leaning to Brenda, whose mouth dropped open.

"Congratulations!" Tracey said, reaching out for Lorelai, touching her arm.

"It's best wishes for the bride-to-be!" Brenda reminded Tracey.

"Who cares?" Tracey shot back, shaking her head in disbelief. Luke and Tracey had indeed so much in common, Lorelai smiled.

"All the best!" Allie said, and then added. "Finally!"

Ellory joined the cheering with bursting out, "Hurray!"

"Oh my gosh, yes!" Brenda gushed next, and then Ellory jumped to her feet, exclaiming, "We need wine."

"Toasts, yes," Brenda agreed.

"We have to celebrate," Allie smiled, looking between the other girls and Lorelai back and forth.

They celebrated Lorelai's engagement with wine and one toast after the other, reminiscing their adventure and the experiences they made so far. For a second, there had been a discussion to get Luke back, but Lorelai had advised them to leave him to his beauty sleep otherwise he would be grumpy in the morning.

Soon enough they were cleaning up and they were off to their respective tents, only leaving Lorelai and Allie behind, the latter one said, "Lorelai, can I ask you something in confidence?"

"Of course. What is it?" Lorelai turned to look at Allie, who seemed uneasy, looking to her sides, making sure no one was within hearing distance. Then Allie asked, just above a whisper, "How is it to have sex in the wild?"

"What?" Lorelai thought she had misunderstood. Was Allie actually asking her that kind of question?

"I've never done it outside. And boy, I've seen places where I just really wanted a man to screw the brains out of me. So, tell me, is it just as good as I imagine it?" Allie said quickly, almost a little embarrassed by the revelation of her phantasies.

"Allie!"

"I know it's private. Just nod if it's good," Allie suggested, her eyes wide.

Lorelai kept her head straight. Her mouth closed and opened a few times before she settled for an answer, "I don't know how to reply to that."

"Nod!" Allie demanded and raised her eyebrows a little higher. It looked like her eyes would pop out of her head any moment.

"Sweetie," Lorelai explained. "There's no sex on the trail."

"What?" Allie narrowed her eyes, her forehead in a deep frown when she asked. "Why not?"

"Look at us! We're not really in the state to-" Lorelai's voice fell flat. She could not believe she was actually discussing this kind of things with an almost stranger. If Luke knew he would freak.

"We smell, we're sweaty, and hairy in all the wrong places," Lorelai said. Her forehead formed a deep frown, when she thought about doing something dirty in the state she was currently in. She was just too dirty for dirty. "This hike is not an erotic experience and adventure. Quite the opposite."

"No spontaneous quickie on the top of a mountain with the vista around you?" Allie asked.

"No."

"And no intense love-making on a meadow, surrounded by nothing but wildflowers?"

"No."

"And no swim in a lake to cool off, which turned into a hot making out session and then you swim to the nearest rock and hold onto it, so you wouldn't drown while you're at it?"

Lorelai refrained from answering this question with the third 'no' in a row, but she decided to shoot back a question herself, "Have we been on the same trail?"

"I'm just disappointed," Allie confessed, sighing deeply, but calling it a night, probably dreaming of a hot encounter with a good-looking guy on the trail. Maybe she would experience that, who knew, Lorelai wished Allie's dreams came true because her personal dream had come true.

Sharing the happiness had felt good and made it feel more real. Lorelai couldn't fight a smile when she lay down next to Luke, shifting to her side, watching the man, she would soon be able to call her husband. Because she had a man with her on the trail, she decided to act on it and bring an arm around his waist, her smile spreading wider, when she felt Luke shift under her touch and pressing a kiss on her forehead.

The content washed over them, granting them a peaceful sleep, sulking in the intimacy; the trail, the other girls, and the rest of the world were totally forgotten.

* * *

 _We're getting closer to the end, do you feel it? This was the last time we saw the "Wild" girls, which is sad enough. More wrapping is coming in the next chapter. I hope you enjoyed this one and thanks for reading. Let me know what you think, I'm really curious. See you soon, and have a nice day. (:_


	13. Last Day

**Chapter 13: Last Day**

Once Luke and Lorelai said goodbye to the other girls, who did "Wild", their hiking trip seemed to pass by even quicker. Not too quickly enough though, Luke really looked forward to a proper bed, and he even missed Stars Hollow and the routine they had built there. He was ready to go back, even though he was not sure how their life would play out once they were back.

The bond they had created on the trail was stronger than ever. They had opened up to each other, properly, and the prospect of calling Lorelai his wife by the end of this year pleased Luke, more than he could express in words.

After all, going on the trip, fighting to join her on the adventure had turned to be one of the best decisions in his life. Besides the obvious one of getting a self-help book and then having the guts to ask Lorelai out.

Yet, there was still something about this trip he didn't quite get, and because they would soon be gone from here, he grasped the opportunity to ask just that, "Why did we go on this trail?"

"What do you mean?" Lorelai turned to him, but she averted her gaze soon after to watch her step again.

"What made you think this-" Luke pointed to their surroundings, the woods, which did not scream Lorelai Gilmore. Even though he had seen her adjusting to the wildlife quite well over the last three weeks, she still did not belong here. "-was what you needed?"

"You read 'Wild', right?"

"Yeah," Luke said. Sure Cheryl Strayed had experienced some setbacks, but Lorelai's situation did not seem as dramatic as the author's ones, at least to him they did not compare. And if Lorelai felt like Cheryl, he truly had been close to losing her.

"It was like the entire world was moving, but I was standing still. Completely still. It seemed like everyone had something to do, something to achieve except for me. I was still the same; there was nothing to do for me. Nothing. So much happened around me and I couldn't fight it, I was stuck." Lorelai gestured with her hands in front of her. Her movements were expansive, taking up a lot of space in front and next to her. "I thought by hiking, by moving, I would gain some perspective. And I did. My mother. You. The annex, which is hopefully a way to keep Michel. I feel like I'm moving again."

"You are," Luke said, smiling at how enthusiastic she was at this, even though she was carrying a backpack half her size and hiking up a significant ascent. On their penultimate day, they had to manage a great altitude, the steepest passage of their entire route, but they still managed ahead of time, giving them the opportunity to enjoy nature's beauty at daylight. However, they couldn't sit in the sun because it was getting cloudier and cloudier. After all, it was October. They were lucky since there was no snow yet.

"These clouds look like trouble," Luke muttered while setting up their tent for the night, which would also act as a shelter once the clouds would burst.

"It's just rain," Lorelai argued because no thunder could be heard so far.

Only minutes after the setup was done, it started spitting, which made Luke groan and he fled into the tent. He settled at the entrance, completely in the dry, but he was still able to peek outside, where Lorelai was looking to the sky with awe.

The drops dripping on her face made her close her eyes though, her features relaxed the longer she stood there outside in the rain. She looked like she would take a shower, totally giving into the sensation of getting the dirt washed off her. It looked off though how she stood there with all of her clothes still on, the gray beanie, the flannel, the trousers and even the hiking shoes.

Soon, laughter was escaping her mouth, and when she started twirling with her arms stretched away from her Luke definitely knew she was enjoying standing there in the rain. She was dancing in the rain, not giving a damn about her clothes getting soaked or catching a cold. She looked carefree, like the happiest person on the planet.

Even though Luke was not with her dancing in the rain, he felt how the rain washed away not only the dirt off Lorelai's skin, but also the baggage of their relationship. The rain washed away any worries; it washed away the pain they had to go through in the last three weeks. The rain gave them a clean start.

After a couple of minutes, the rain was over; it had been a short shower after all, and the sun rose again, drying off not only Lorelai but their surroundings too, so they could share their last dinner on the trail outside.

Lorelai changed into a new set of clothes, and with the black hat gone, and the gray one soaked, Luke finally understood why Lorelai had brought along three kinds of hats. She was wearing the one with the dog on it, smiling proudly at him. "Told you I would need three hats," she said.

"Yeah," he chuckled.

"Or you jinxed it, we'll never know."

Luke didn't respond to that, too exhausted of the day. They remained seated after dinner, enjoying the outside since it was their last night on a life-changing adventure. They spent it with reminiscing.

"It's a pity we never saw a bear," Lorelai said, sitting crossed leg on the ground, the pillow with owls under her and the knees right in front her chest, which she hugged to herself.

"A pity?" Luke asked, tucking at his trousers, so he could bend his knee.

"Yeah. I really wanted to see one." She nodded her head eagerly, which made Luke shake his head in response.

"You meeting the deer from afar today was enough for me," he chuckled, remembering how at first she had flinched and had hidden behind him because she had thought the brown animal in the distance was indeed a bear. The next thing Luke registered was some fumbling at his backpack, searching for the whistles, which should be attached to his backpack so they could be used in an emergency easily. It had taken a lot of persuading until she had believed him they were not in danger. He could not stop her from singing louder than usual when they carried on with their hike. Singing "I'm gonna be (500 miles)" had helped her soothe her nerves, and keep her calm.

"That little Bambi was cute," Lorelai said now in retrospect, which did not match with Luke's memory of the incident, so he let go of it and teased her instead by saying, "I will read Winnie the Pooh to you, once we're home."

"A good night story," Lorelai cheered, using her little girl's voice on him, high-pitched. It sounded almost a little slutty when she added, "Will you tuck me in too?"

"No, just reading," he groaned, using the huskiest voice he was capable of using. Two could play this game.

"If you use that voice on me, that awfully pleasant reading voice, you should be careful," she warned him. The teasing was definitely on.

"Careful?" He challenged.

Instead of replying, Lorelai brought her hands behind her so she could push herself off the ground more easily. Within two strides she crossed the distance between them and brought her hands to his cheeks, cupping them in her palms; the beard was scrubby beneath them. She leaned down so her lips could melt against his in a kiss, which made Luke breathless, and wishing for more of that. Tomorrow night, he would show her just how much he wanted this.

Too soon, Lorelai detached herself from him and settled back to the ground, a sheepish grin on her face when she noticed that he was still panting heavily due to the deep kiss she had given him by surprise. Deep kisses needed some time for preparation nowadays.

"Is there anything you want to discuss. Now's the time, tomorrow it will be too late," she said, swaying back and forth in her seat.

Luke was barely able to say anything, still out of breath, "I'm fine."

"You sure? Is nothing stored in there? Somewhere deep down?"

"I'm all talked out."

"Nothing bothering you?"

Since she would not shut up, he was kind of forced to bring up something, even if it was just to tease her, "You mean besides your coffee addiction and your craving for junk food, I'm good."

"The coffee addiction and the junk food is part of me. That's the things you love about me. Hell, that's even why we know each other. If I had not been craving coffee, I would have never come to the diner in the first place and I would have never given the horoscope to you. Imagine a life without me in it."

"A peaceful life." Luke countered.

"A boring life."

"Yeah," he agreed. It was not secret a life without Lorelai in it was not an option to him, never, even when he complained about this and that. The bickering was part of them.

"I have one more thing I want to-" Lorelai said, and then paused, biting her lip, "-discuss is not the right word, I just want to tell you."

"Yeah?" He met her gaze, the soft light of the lantern in between them giving a nice glow to her face, almost like candlelight.

"I love you."

These three words took Luke by surprise; they caught him off guard just like the kiss she had given him before. He didn't say anything; he was like paralyzed. One moment, they were teasing and bantering, and in the next moment, those three words followed. He could feel the rapid heartbeat in his throat, forming a lump there, which made it impossible to speak. All he did was stare at her.

"Don't you want to respond to it in any way?" Lorelai asked when Luke did not leave the impression of replying.

He shook his head, and then cleared his throat, frowning, while suppressing a smile. "No, I'm good," he said, shrugging.

"Luke!"

"What?"

"I used the three important words and you just do what, shrug? Seriously?" Lorelai looked at him with an open mouth.

"Don't overreact," he tried to reason with her.

"I try not to, but shouldn't you return them?"

"It goes without saying that it's the same for me." He chose different words to return the love declaration; they were a little unusual, but his style, true to him as a person. He was not the type to throw out love declarations easily, never. Actions spoke louder than words to him.

"Huh."

Lorelai didn't seem pleased with that, even though love declarations were never their thing. There were other ways to show the love they felt for each other. He asked, "What? It's always been like that between us."

"But still," Lorelai argued, shaking her head in disbelief.

"Why change?"

"Because it's nice."

"I don't do nice," Luke threw back. If there was a word he did not want to be associated with it was nice, or worse cute.

"Luke." Lorelai was persistent, pushing him for an answer.

"What does it change? If I say them, nothing's different between us," Luke argued. There was nothing worse than forced declarations of love; it took away the seriousness of them.

"No, but don't you like hearing it once in a while?"

"It's fine." He waved it off, hoping they could let this subject rest.

However, Lorelai had no intention to do such thing, and said, "I think I have to be clearer about this, I want to hear them once in a while."

"OK," he answered. He took her request in and in the future he would work on making sure she know how much she meant to him. Giving her the engagement ring, which was safely stored in a drawer at their house would give away his feelings; he was sure about that. Only two more days and he could finally give it to her, put it on her finger again. He was looking forward to that moment, when their engagement was official, with a ring and a date set too.

"So, don't you want to…?" She raised an eyebrow, prompting him to return the three words with either two, three or four words. There were different options.

"Not on command," he shot back, settling for three different kinds of words.

"Luke," Lorelai argued again, but it was not getting her anywhere. Luke's mind was set on this. He would tell her once they were home, once the right moment was there, it did not have to be moonlight this time around.

"There's no need for you to question my feelings for you. Not ever. So, stop," he told her off, but she was still pouting at him. It was Lorelai's style to do so. Usually, he would give into the pout, which was especially effective when she combined it with the hair flip she had perfected over the years. However, tonight even the hair flip, which she attempted with her slightly damaged hair, would not do the trick.

Lorelai exhaled in frustration, leaning back on her hands, "Fine, now the mood's spoiled."

Only with them, a love declaration, which got not rejected could spoil the mood of their last evening on the trail. Luke, however, had an ace up his sleeve to make her feel better. He had waited for the right moment to use it, and finally, he could fish the surprise out of one of his side pockets. It was a small, yellow plastic package, and he also brought the camping cooker along.

While he started the cooker again, making the flame extra high, he gave Lorelai the package, which she opened warily. Her face lit up as soon as she recognized what the contents could be used for. "You did not," she exclaimed. "We're having s'mores?"

It was easy to bring a smile to Lorelai's face when sweets were involved. "Can't go camping without s'mores, can you?" Luke shot back.

"Thank you," she said, smiling for a second, then she frowned, whacking his shoulder. "You kept those from me for three weeks?"

Lorelai's rebuke was forgotten as soon as the first s'more was ready to eat, and the delicious chocolate mixed with the melted marshmallow enriched her taste buds. After three weeks of instant camping food, the s'mores tasted even to Luke like heaven. It was the perfect way to spend their last evening in the wilderness, only a few miles away from their destination.

Both were eager to finally have a proper shower, a bed and some real food, that was why their feet took them faster their way than expected. Lorelai although felt a little sentimental at packing too, telling him this had been the last time they had spent a night in their sleeping bags, the last time they had to strike their tent, and the last time they had prepared breakfast. There were a lot of last times that day. At some point, Luke stopped caring and smiled every time she pointed out another last time they experienced.

Around lunchtime, they saw the end of their route, which was indicated by a big street crossing the trail. Just two more minutes and they had managed 211 miles within three weeks. Something Luke never even dared to think of in his wildest dreams, he would be able to achieve with Lorelai by his side.

"Wait," Lorelai said, holding Luke back on his elbow, which made him turn his head in her direction. He saw her taking in one deep breath, and then saying quickly in the same breath, "Rory wants to write a book."

"A book?" Luke's mouth remained open, but he was sure he would draw the corners of his mouth soon up in a smile. He liked Rory's writing, and it was no secret he was what Lorelai had dubbed super-proud.

"About me and her," Lorelai clarified.

Luke didn't understand right away. A book about Lorelai and Rory. "Doing what? Solving a murder? Getting abducted by aliens?" he asked in need for more details.

"No, non-fiction."

"I don't understand." He shook his head, narrowing his eyes.

"She wants to write about our life."

"Oh." Luke widened his eyes now, the confusion did not leave him yet. There were still questions about this. "But why? Is it that interesting?"

"Well, thank you." She smacked his arm playfully. "Because of the unique mother-daughter-thing we share."

"OK." He trailed off, not really getting where the problem was lying.

"And I don't want to put myself and my story out there. I don't want her to write the book. That's what we're arguing about. That's the reason she won't talk to me because now I'm the one ruining her dream. But it's my story and I don't want all the world to know." Even though Lorelai had crossed her arms in front of her chest, she let go off her elbows she was clinging to ever so often. She was used to talking with her hands, gesturing boldly.

"Rory's writing is great, don't get me wrong." He reached out for her forearm, not touching it though. "But I doubt all the world will read it."

"Doesn't matter. All world has the possibility to read it, and that's enough. Can you imagine how crazy Stars Hollow will get over this book? They'll all own a copy and finally know what a horrible person I really am."

"You're not a horrible person," Luke argued.

"They'll still know everything."

"I doubt that too."

"Luke, haven't you paid attention? It will all be in a book!" She spread her arms as wide from her as she could, giving into a dramatic pose. That was what Lorelai did, she was dramatic, sometimes overdramatic and therefore overreacting. She needed some perspective on this. Obviously, she had only talked with Rory about the book and no one else.

"Don't worry about the folk in Stars Hollow. They are not much of readers, are they? At least, nothing that's longer than the Stars Hollow Gazette," Luke started to reason, and there was a lot of reasoning to do, so he took his backpack off, asking Lorelai to do the same. They, also, settled down to talk through this properly. Both of them expected it to take longer, and their feet were hurting after walking 211 miles.

"Babette will start reading the first two pages and then she'll get distracted by something else," Luke said, breaking it down to every one of Stars Hollow's citizen. "Patty only relies on what people say. She won't even touch the book. That's the two gossip queens out of the way."

"If East Side Tilly was still alive, she would have been a problem," Lorelai interjected.

"That woman was a force of nature. She lived on gossip," Luke said. "Then we have Kirk, who will lose his copy more than once. He'll spend most of his time looking for it than actually reading."

"Kirk really has that weird ability to lose his belongings within a matter of seconds," Lorelai sighed.

"Taylor being Taylor doesn't give a damn about the book. There are more important things to do with his precious time."

"Like harassing you about God knows what?" Lorelai teased. She took great pleasure of seeing Taylor driving Luke up a wall, which annoyed Luke even a little more.

"Bootsy will pretend he has read the book, but he hasn't really. He'll display it strategically on his stand, so everybody can see it, and so everybody will have the impression he has read it."

"Intriguing, go on."

He seemed to be doing something right, Lorelai's mood had shifted a little, nodding to what he said, "Donald will skim through just to see if he gets mentioned and then he'll be disappointed that he isn't."

"Well, he doesn't live long enough here to earn a place in the book," Lorelai interjected.

"Morey will actually read it, but he's too cool to comment on it. He really respects you."

"He might look tough, but he has a great heart." Lorelai managed to smile when she talked about her neighbor. Luke was definitely on the right track with this conversation. The longer he talked about it the easier it got.

"Mrs. Kim will under no circumstances read it because she can't support spreading the idea of single motherhood. That goes against everything she believes in. Lane knows basically all that will get mentioned, so don't worry about her. Zach does not have time to read and it would hurt his rock'n'roll image if he would. Brian, however, will read it, but he will only discuss it with Rory, and then probably only with Lane present."

"That's right; he's very considerate."

"Then there's Sookie, who knows all of it and if you ask her not to read it she won't - just like Jackson," Luke said and clapped his hands together. "Michel's the only one who's unpredictable. But I think you two have grown as friends, so he might not make a snarky comment. And if he does, tell me and I'll have another talk with him."

"I'll warn him about that." Lorelai locked eyes with Luke, who thought of all the times he put Michel to his place when he overstepped boundaries.

"And about all the other Stars Hollow citizens you don't care, do you?" Luke asked.

"They might stare at me." Lorelai's face fell grim again, a deep frown forming on her forehead.

"Stare back at 'em!"

"Luke," Lorelai moaned.

"We'll figure that out when it's around. The safe bet is that Kirk will do something weird and you're not the center of attention anymore."

"Right," she said through gritted teeth, making it obvious that she was not entirely convinced.

"All the people who matter know already and the rest won't read it," Luke summed his speech up.

"What about Caesar?"

"Oh, that chatterbox will only comment on the cute stuff. He's a hopeless romantic and sucker for precious family stories. His words, not mine," Luke clarified.

Lorelai narrowed her eyes, biting her lips, but she couldn't suppress the smile at this revelation. "We have to mention that to Rory, so she includes some cute stories for him."

They fell in a silence for a moment, granting Luke to reach for his water bottle. His throat was all dry from talking, and he was in need for some water. After taking a few big gulps, he handed the bottle to Lorelai, who took it with a smile and then had some water too.

When Lorelai handed the bottle back to him, Luke asked,

"If you're not too thrilled about the book, I guess, your mother is not too eager as well?"

"I don't think she knows yet." Lorelai closed her eyes, carrying on, "The book will set us back, make things worse again even though there had been some progress. This old stuff always comes back to us."

"You'll make up, you always do," Luke said; there had not been a single fight Lorelai and her mother had not resolved in some way. Sooner or later, but they had always mended things. There was no running from family.

Lorelai did not dwell too long on that issue, but brought up a different one, "April will read it."

"In-depth, yes." Luke nodded. "But that's how she reads everything."

"I don't know if-" Lorelai said, but Luke cut her off, "Don't finish that sentence."

"Luke," she argued.

"She feels like a daughter to you?" He asked, to which she nodded in response. He added, "Doesn't your daughter deserve to know about things like that? About your past?"

"She'll have questions." Lorelai frowned, making it sound like it was the worst in the world.

"Yes, probably the ones you won't be expecting. She picks up on different things than you would expect her to. God knows what's going on in her brain."

"Lots of metaphysics?" Lorelai offered, rehashing what April had said at the family dinner in summer.

"And philosophy," Luke added.

"And civil rights."

"Don't remind me of that." Luke brought his hand to his forehead, massaging his temples. Pot being part of civil rights did not make any sense to him. He pushed that upsetting thought aside and said, "And you can tell April that you won't answer certain questions if they get too personal. She's an adult, she'll understand. And it's a safe bet, she'll hit up Rory with her questions in the first place. There's no need for you to worry about it."

Lorelai shifted in her seat, back and forth, she was obviously still struggling. "And you?" She chewed on her lip again. "Will you read it?"

"Absolutely." Luke did not have to think about it long and hard; his answer had been clear to him the minute he learned Rory would be writing a book about Lorelai and herself.

"Didn't you forget the 'not' at the end of that?" Lorelai asked, studying him.

"Absolutely not." He shook his head.

"There you go," Lorelai sighed.

Lorelai, however, misunderstood; the word-play was misleading. He clarified, "I will read it."

"You're kidding?" Lorelai's shoulders dropped down in surprise.

"Do I look like I'd be kidding?"

This time around Lorelai looked at him longer, bringing her eyes up and down, focusing on his features. It was easier than expected to not laugh because he was dead serious about his intentions.

"Why?" Lorelai exhaled at last. It sounded so much like the 'why' Luke had uttered when Lorelai had announced she would be doing "Wild". That one word was loaded with emotion.

Carefully, Luke chose the words to explain his reasons, of which he had several. "First off, you're going to be my wife. I doubt there's much in this book I don't know. Well, at least, I hope so. As your husband, I should know about these things, don't you think?"

"I guess so." Lorelai frowned.

"I always read Rory's stuff, so I see no reason to stop that habit now. I don't have a problem with the book. There's nothing I need to be worried about, which could be in it. And if so, I don't care," Luke said, but leaving Lorelai no time to respond to it. "And then there's my most obvious task, which is making sure your reservations prove to be correct. You're very defensive about this book, and I want to see it for myself."

"You want to mend things between Rory and me?" Lorelai asked.

"You're capable of doing that yourself, but I'm in the middle. I'm not only involved with you, Rory's part of my life too," Luke reminded her.

"I know that," Lorelai whispered. "I'm still not gonna read it."

"No one's forcing you to. Rory is an adult, she'll have to respect your decision, but so do you."

Lorelai's eyes remained glued to the ground; obviously processing what had been said. Luke granted her time to wrap her head around it; in the end, this had been bothering her for months. Luke understood why she had been reluctant to bring it up; it was huge and invasive. He was happy though she had finally opened about it, even if it was at the last minute. Better late than never.

"You'll tell me if there's something in the book I should know?" Lorelai eventually asked, meeting his gaze again.

"Yes," Luke said and nodded.

"Alright." Lorelai too nodded and stood up again, putting the backpack on for the last two minutes of their hike. Luke followed her lead, putting Mary on one last time on the PCT. He had grown to like the nickname of his backpack, but he would never admit that to Lorelai.

"Partners?" Luke asked, facing Lorelai, making sure she was alright with everything they had discussed in the last hour.

"Making their way through life together," she said and reached out for his hand to take it in hers. With their fingers intertwined, they made their way along the last yards on the trail together.

Unlike at the start of the trip, which they had been spent arguing, they finished the hike as a union, more content with each other and their relationship than ever before. They had grown so much over the last three weeks. When they passed a ranger, Lorelai did not even greet him. She had only eyes for Luke, who squeezed her hand tighter.

Luke wanted to save that kind of smile she was flashing him forever, cherish it, and he knew how to savor it. He made Lorelai take another selfie of them. They reenacted the picture they had taken before the trail, so they could see if there was a difference between before and after the trail.

There was a big change. At first, he didn't recognize himself or Lorelai. They looked like strangers to him. After all, they had been different people three weeks ago, but he wouldn't want to change a thing. The new them felt good.

* * *

 _That was their last day on the trail. I don't know if I should add "finally" or "already". I'm very happy we are finally this far with this story, but at the same time, we are already so close to the end. There's not much left of this story, one more chapter, and I can't describe my emotions. It's a rollercoaster, something in-between thrilled and devastated. As soon as I gain control over my feelings, I will post the last chapter, which is hopefully sometime next week. For now, thanks for reading and I wish you a very great weekend. And if you feel like it, let me know what you think. (:_


	14. Still Unbelievable

**Chapter 14: Still Unbelievable**

Lorelai couldn't believe it. She had managed a hiking trip. It sounded like a joke to her; a very bad one with an even worse punch line. Lorelai Gilmore had accomplished a hiking trip. She had come up with the idea by herself, even though no Hello Kitty booth had been involved, she had hiked it till the end. She couldn't believe it. The longer she thought about it, the less she could actually wrap her head around this.

All of it would not have been possible without Luke, her partner in life, who had fought in the first place to be with her, but still, the miles she had to walk by herself. Luke didn't have to carry her some of the way. Every mile of the 211 she had hiked on her own. She was damn proud of herself, but very tired too. She was looking forward to a bed and a proper shower.

First, she and Luke had to fetch a little package from a near-by post-office. The package was filled with fresh clothes and some hygiene products and razors, which they had sent ahead, but soon after, they were in the hotel, which Lorelai had booked in advance. With their dirty clothes and the backpacks, they did not match the other guests, but Lorelai paid them as little attention as possible, making her way straight to the front desk with Luke in tow.

"Hello. We have a reservation," Lorelai said. "Gilmore."

"Oh, here you are," the young man behind the counter said, a big smile on his face. "Welcome, Mr. and Mrs. Gilmore."

Again, they were mistaken for husband and wife, just like at the motel, where they had started their "Wild" trip three weeks ago. It happened again and again. Lorelai suppressed real laughter and just smiled. She turned to Luke and bumped her elbow into his side. He returned the smile, but neither of them corrected the receptionist and just played along, filling out the forms, which were handed to them.

After they had gotten their keys for their room and they were on their way to the elevators on the other side of the lobby, Luke hissed to Lorelai, "I'm not taking your name."

"Oh, why not? That name has history," Lorelai reminded him.

"So does Danes," Luke countered. The debate about the last names was on. It was something they had not considered. They had decided they would get married, but the details yet needed to be discussed, they were not important, after all, they were just details.

"You mean those sheep in the valley?" Lorelai raised an eyebrow, as she pushed the button to call the elevator. "The Gilmores came over on the Mayflower. I am a daughter of the American Revolution."

"Without being a member."

Luke's comeback was good, but Lorelai had one too, even though, it was drowned out by the loud ring, which indicated the elevator had arrived. "My mother and my daughter are; that should be enough."

Without any further banter, Luke guided Lorelai in the elevator, which brought them to their floor and therefore to their room. Lorelai couldn't wait any longer. She had dreamed of this room for three weeks. As soon as she had entered the room, she was dropping the backpack on the floor, not even thinking about if it would stand in the way and stepped up to the bed. Just when she was about to flop on it, Luke held her back on her biceps, which had grown over the last weeks.

"What do you think you're doing?" He asked.

"Lying down," she answered, irritated by his question.

"Not looking like this," he said, and he had a point. She was still wearing the clothes of the trail and they were smelly and dirty. A freshly made bed should not be entered like this. She should get clean first and change in her pajamas for the night. All fresh in a fresh bed, that sounded like a dream.

"Alright, alright, Mr. dirt police," she said, raising her hands in defeat.

"Hurry, I want to go the bathroom too." He smacked her butt playfully as she went to the bathroom, taking a towel and some body products from the package, they had fetched in the afternoon.

"You know-" She turned around at the bathroom door as a thought crossed her mind and said, "-you can join me if you want."

Luke did take her up on the offer, but in a different way, she had implied. While she was in the shower, he stood at the sink taking care of the beard, which he had grown over the last three weeks. When Lorelai stepped out of the shower, she was pleased to see he was all smooth again. She could not resist bringing her hand to his cheek, smoothing over it, feeling for herself how his face felt without the jungle on it anymore.

During Luke's shower time, Lorelai took care of her eyebrows, which she had complained about on the trail. They were one big horror, which would need to be taken care of properly at a later time. The bed was calling her name, and after she had settled against the big fluffy cushions and the duvet was placed over her legs, she decided to call the room service, ordering them dinner. She would not leave the bed this day, in the last days they had walked enough. Their feet needed some rest.

Even Luke had no objections to that, and settled next to her, falling limp on the mattress, stretching out, his arm folded behind his head. He looked relaxed with his eyes closed.

Lorelai mimicked him, scooting further down, so her head could come to rest on the pillow. She was drifting off to sleep when suddenly a thought crossed her mind, which made her open her eyes widely. "Luke, hon." She reached out to poke a finger in his arm. "One of us has to get up and let the room service in."

A deep sigh came from Luke, he mumbled something incomprehensible, but judging by his tone, Lorelai assumed he would get the door later. In the meantime, Lorelai rolled onto her side, so she could snuggle against Luke, who buried his nose in her hair, taking deep breaths. "Your hair finally smells like you again," he said.

"Did you miss the peach after all?" She teased; talking about her peach scented shampoo she liked using.

"I like peaches."

"Like?" Lorelai challenged him, chuckling against his chest.

Luke was burying his fingers in her hair, patting it. "Will you still go and cut it?"

"Yes, It's just too much work," Lorelai answered. "The ends are damaged after these three weeks. All dried out. I thought about the length I had when we first got together. Do you remember? After you came back after that horrible seven weeks in Maine."

"Vaguely." Luke said, "'I liked that hairstyle on you."

"I remember, someone couldn't keep his hands out of my locks," Lorelai said, very well aware that Luke was playing with her hair just now, she added. "Still can't."

"You can't blame me for that," he answered, a yawn escaping his mouth. "Did they say when the room service will be here?"

"Half an hour."

"Let's take a power-nap. Can you set an alarm on the phone of yours?"

Lorelai was about to protest because her phone was still somewhere packed in her backpack, but since Luke finally acknowledged the good sides about a phone, she decided to get it without complaining. Gary was leaning against the bed anyway, so she wouldn't have to get off the bed.

The power nap did them good, maybe it was the real mattress, which made the short period of sleep so relaxing and helped them recharge their energy level. The food helped with that too, which made it easy to engage in a real conversation over early dinner, which they spent having on the bed because Lorelai refused to leave the bed.

"Will you come with me when I go see Sookie?" Lorelai asked.

"You will go see her?"

"I think I need to go up there if she doesn't move her butt here." Sookie's latest updates did not sound like she would be coming to Stars Hollow anytime soon, she was swept up there.

"Right," Luke chuckled at her choice of words. "If you want to. But if you want to go by yourself, that's OK too."

It made Lorelai sigh, not out of frustration, but out of happiness. Luke always was the considerate one, the one, who didn't want to intrude, the one, to make her happy and play by the rules she set. "We could make a little honeymoon out of it, you know. Spend a few days at Sookie's and then go somewhere else there. Maybe even hike."

"Hike?"

"We were pretty good at it. Doesn't have to be as extreme as this one, only a few miles, without huge backpacks like Gary and Mary. Might be fun," she suggested. There was something about hiking, which sounded intriguing, giving her a kick, which she was eager to experience again. After some time to relax and recover though.

"Honeymoon? Aren't you getting ahead of yourself? We haven't set a date yet," Luke reminded her, frowning.

"We agreed on this year, right? So, I would say November, maybe the middle of November, since in 10 days, it's already November, which would grant us a month to plan. December is out of the question; we don't wanna compete with Christmas, do we?"

"That's still very soon," Luke pointed out.

"Already getting cold feet?"

"No. I'm just wondering how we'll manage to organize a wedding within four weeks. Without the BFOTB." Luke frowned, spelling out the abbreviation very slowly, "Did I get it right?"

At the memory of Sookie and Luke's discussion all this time ago, Lorelai smiled, and said, "We can make it without the best friend of the bride. You and me. I want all of your input. And we might ask my mom for help, she has organized a party or two in the past. And I'm pretty sure Stars Hollow would be up for help."

"Kirk will be our first volunteer." Luke rolled his eyes, probably thinking of all the times Kirk had made a mess out of things with his help. His intentions were always good, but not good enough.

"We'll need volunteers if we want to invite all of Stars Hollow and don't want this to get too expensive. This trip has cost a fortune, there is no money left for a big wedding." They were certainly not in money trouble, but with the trip and the possible annex for the inn, Lorelai assumed it would be best to save money where it could be saved.

"All of Stars Hollow?" Luke grimaced. "Why don't we keep it simple? Just family? And close friends."

"If you're willing to take the townies' complaints, I'm in," Lorelai said, already imagining Babette's face when she learned she would not be welcome at their wedding. Lorelai was not sure if Babette would be eager to take in Paul-Anka anytime soon.

"They will nag us quite a bit, will they?" Luke said, bringing his hand to his neck and rubbing it.

"Half a year for sure, probably a year. And you know how they can get. There will be a big discussion at the town meeting and snarky comments whenever we'll see them on the streets. Don't you remember how they reacted when they found out we had to cancel Rory's graduation party for Yale?"

"Fine. A Stars Hollow wedding it is," Luke gave in, but he did not refrain from rolling his eyes. She could not blame him for doing so, sometimes others dictated their life rather than them deciding for themselves. That, however, was part of living in a community.

"It's alright if you suffer a little, in the end, you'll get the grand prize," Lorelai cheered him up, flashing him a big smile, hoping the prospect of marrying her would lighten his mood.

"And what will that be?"

"Me," she deadpanned.

"Yeah," he said, reaching out to pat her knee a few times, eventually, stopping and drawing circles on her knee and moving down her calf.

"That doesn't sound convincing."

"Don't worry." He let go off her leg and got rid off their plates, which had been still sitting on the bed. He put them on the tray, which the room service had left here.

Afterward, he didn't settle back on his side of the bed, but on hers, putting an arm in the middle of the bed, leaning on it. She looked at her hip, which was trapped under his arm and then moved her gaze up to his shoulder, over his neck to his lips, finally coming to rest on his eyes, which looked at her somehow amused. She could not help but notice his aftershave filling her nose, which brought a chill down her spine. His face was so close that she could feel the puffs he drew against her sensitive skin. It did not help her maintain her composure either. She had not expected him to come this close to her, being all sexy, or she was hoping he tried to be sexy. Her thoughts definitely had long gone that way down.

The seconds they remained just sitting close stretched to minutes and Lorelai couldn't bear the tension anymore. Luke didn't act on the thrill of the moment, not even licking his lips in anticipation like she. Lorelai could not sit still anymore and bent her knees to gain more balance.

Finally, a smile stretched on Luke's lips, and he asked, "The no-sex-rule is off the table, is it?"

"Don't play games, Butch," Lorelai answered, flipping her hair over her shoulder, leaning back on her hands, which brought her breasts out further.

It was the start of rearranging on the bed, the discarding of clothes, and some further movement on the mattress. It was getting intense, after all, these kinds of emotions had been held back for not only three weeks, but also the weeks and months before the trip. There had been touching, but not like this. Not with the knowledge they could seal the deal, go all the way.

The skin on skin contact felt good. His hard chest pressed on her torso, rubbing up and down, teasing her in the right way. She didn't mind their lower parts still separated by layers and layers of clothes. There was no rush. They had all night.

"Luke, honey," Lorelai said in between kisses, sneaking her hands between his body and hers. She pressed them against his chest, pushing him away from her. "Stop for a second, please."

Luke pulled himself up on his forearms, framing her face. "What's up?"

"Do you-" Lorelai hesitated. It was ridiculous to ask him for that, "Do you have a condom?"

"What?" Just like Lorelai had expected he frowned at that.

"I wanted to ask before I forget and my brain gets clouded with lust and distracted by your fiery kisses," she said, making a point by pressing a kiss to the corner of lips.

"Why would we need a condom? Aren't you on the pill?" He leaned down to kiss the sensitive skin behind her ear, which made her twirl under his touch every time. It was her Achilles' heel.

"I am, sort of," she giggled.

"Lorelai?" He growled against her neck, which made her body get covered in goosebumps.

"I forget about it once or twice on the hike and then, I thought why bother taking the rest? It gave me another excuse to not sleep with you," she told him.

"Ok." He stopped nuzzling her neck and instead looked her in the eyes, waiting for some further explanation.

"I will take the pill again back in Stars Hollow. It's part of my routine. I can't get rid of that," she assured him when she saw some uncertainty and worry in his eyes. Once that was gone, there was a frown forming again, "Alright."

"So?" Lorelai prompted, taking in a sharp breath, widening her eyes.

"I don't think I have a condom," he said and detached himself from her. He moved to the other side of the bed and sat up to reach for his wallet on the nightstand. He always placed his personal belongings within reach. He looked through it and muttered, "I can't even remember the last time we used a condom."

"That's a couple of years ago." Lorelai sat up too, watching him going through every of his wallet's pockets.

"It will be weird," Luke stated, checking one of the secret pockets of his wallets in the backside.

"A good weird," Lorelai reminded him. Condom or not, making love with Luke was always good, no matter what.

"Yeah. I don't have one with me. Never thought I need one here; 3,000 miles away from home." He went with his fingers through his hair. "I think I saw a drug store across the street when we arrived."

"No!"

"No?" Luke asked again.

"I don't want you to leave this bed." She pouted, tracing her fingers along his arm.

"You know what this means then?" He settled down on his side, facing her.

"Yeah, I do," she sighed, bringing her finger down his chest, drawing circles there. His chest was still one of her favorite parts of him.

"Suppose it has to wait until we're home tomorrow." He caught her hand on his chest, enclosing her fingers in a fist, right above his heart, which was still beating fast from the excitement. His jaw was fletching, a sign he was uncomfortable, probably trying to chase away any compromising thought.

While she studied his features, the defined chin, the soft lips she could finally see without looking for them beneath the beard, the fine lines around his blue eyes, a thought crossed her mind. "Why don't we risk it?" She asked.

"What?"

"I mean it's not like it's a real risk. The pill is still sort of in my system and we're not the youngest anymore. The doctors said even with special treatment chances were slim I get pregnant easily with peri-menopause. So what I'm trying to say is that one time without protection won't hurt." Lorelai tried her best to sound reasonable.

"But what if?" Luke threw in. It was a solid argument, which had to be taken into consideration. Even if changes were slim, there would be a chance.

"Then we'll get the fresh kid after all." Lorelai shrugged, to her it was no big deal.

"I-" Luke started, but she cut him off, by saying "It's not like we're trying, Luke. I'm pretty much aware of that and I won't get upset if get my period. We decided no kids anymore. All I'm saying is that we should have unprotected sex right now and don't care about it. If it happens, fine, then we'll get our miracle baby. And if it doesn't, that's fine too because you're enough for me."

"There won't be tears if you're not pregnant?" Luke asked; he wanted to be sure before he agreed to it.

"No, this is not trying for a baby." Lorelai insisted, scooting closer to him, her right leg got trapped between his and soon at least Lorelai took off where they had left things. Luke was warily responding to her kisses. Between two kisses, he was able to utter, "It feels like trying."

"Didn't you listen?" Lorelai moaned against his shoulder, where she had been caressing his skin. "I don't waste a perfectly fine hotel room because we don't have protection around."

"I told you I could pick some up," Luke shot back, which made Lorelai throw her head back, moaning in frustration again. "Please, Luke, let's do this. Let's give faith a chance. Destiny."

"There no such thing," he mumbled, the words falling flat because Lorelai had her lips pressed to his throat.

"They, you don't have to be afraid," she chuckled, drawing the thin skin on his throat between her lips, biting down lightly. Luke groaned in response, which was a sign to Lorelai she had worn him down. Finally. It took a lot more persuading to coax him into sleeping with her. Eventually, after some easing, and being extra nice to him, showering him with attention and love, he gave into the pleasure, returning the favor, caressing her in the way she liked it best, worshiping her body, finally giving into the tension, which had risen and grown over weeks and weeks.

When he drew back for some air after a very deep and long kiss, which had their limbs intertwined, with Luke atop and Lorelai firmly pressed to the mattress, Luke said, "Let's turn this into trying."

"Wait, what?" Lorelai did not grasp the said right away, she was lost in the feeling, in the heat of the moment and the lust, which had been building inside of her. There was less blood in her brain, which made thinking straight harder.

"Let's pretend we're actually trying for a kid," Luke said. "We have kids, Lorelai, but we never got to the part where we make one together. Let's experience that for once. We'll make it special and give our bests. Let's pretend we don't know how slim the chances are for me to impregnate you."

Because her head was so clouded with lust, she took her time to think about Luke's proposal. At first, it did not make any sense to her. Trying for a baby when they were not really trying for a baby. It was like role-playing, which she had failed to persuade Luke to join so often in the past. And now he was the one suggesting it. Trying for a baby sounded tempting, only in winter, it was something she had wished for so badly, but a week ago they had agreed that no little kids in their life were a good thing. What they were about to do now went against everything they had discussed, yet it sounded reasonable. They had kids, they had experienced the raising of kids, some of it even together, all they lacked together was the making of a baby. They could easily catch up on that tonight, then they had the full experience of raising kids together.

"Just tonight," Lorelai whispered, the words falling from her lips, washing over her as the revelation and the significance of the moment hit her.

"Tonight only," Luke assured her before he locked his lips with hers again. They stayed locked for a long time, only parting, so they could catch their breaths. But within seconds, they were pressed to each other again. They were giving everything into the kisses they could, and they had so much to offer the other.

Kissing each other on the mouth soon seemed not enough anymore, there were other parts of their bodies, which desired the attention of their lips, which both of them were willing to give.

Making love and trying for a baby felt entirely different. It was a once in a lifetime experience, for the both of them. Neither Rory nor April had been planned. When they had sex with their partners at that time neither Lorelai nor Luke had been aware they would be creating a new life right at this moment.

Trying for a baby was indeed more intense, whenever they locked eyes when they were connected in the most intimate way possible, Lorelai thought she would explode because of all the happy feelings, which filled her. She felt like this was the moment they were finally after two decades of knowing each other becoming one. Truly connected.

In that moment, it didn't matter if they really created a new life because with this trip they had created a new life for themselves. It was not important if it would be filled with a baby with their shared DNA, as long as they were together, a life without a baby could be just as fulfilling.

Even when it was long over, the trying for a baby, Lorelai could not leave her hands off Luke. She still sought his warmth and his kisses. She still locked her lips with his because she wanted to prolong the intenseness of the moment. Luke didn't seem to mind either, engaging into the kisses, maybe with a little less enthusiasm than her, but he responded well enough. He was lying on his back, while Lorelai was snuggled half on top of him and half on his side. One of her legs was between his, her fingers were cupping his cheeks. "I forgot how nice it is to kiss you," Lorelai said in-between kisses. "We don't kiss enough."

"We kissed plenty in the past," Luke said, his arm loosely wrapped around her, his hand coming to rest on the small of her back.

"But not anymore. New rule. At least one kiss a day from now on, no matter how stressful things get."

Luke chuckled, but let her go on with her request.

"And I'm not talking about a quick peck. A sweet kiss that lasts at least three seconds."

"Got it." Luke leaned in to capture her lips between his. After exactly three seconds, he pulled away. "So, we're done for today with the kissing?"

"Add-on to the rule. It is a minimum of three seconds, always open to prolonging the fun," she told him, smiling at him widely, pursing her lips for a kiss, to which he eventually gave in.

The kissing came to a natural end sometime later; only partly because they had to leave early tomorrow morning to catch their flight from Sacramento home. Flying made Luke uneasy, Lorelai knew, that was why she was keeping him busy with some talk about the hike, hopefully taking away his worries. It seemed to work just fine, talking and holding his hand, making sure he knew she would not let him down, being there for him, just like he had been there for her.

"Have I said thank you?" She asked softly while he gripped her hand tightly. The take-off was long over, but they had hit a rough patch somewhere over Nebraska. She tried to distract him with a conversation.

"For?" Luke asked, his voice sounded hoarse.

"For coming with me. For making me let you tag along." She shrugged with one shoulder. "For fighting for me."

"Well-" Luke exhaled and cleared his throat in the process.

"Thank you," she said, looking him deep in the eyes. "For everything. For listening to me. For being there for me. For offering advice."

Luke opened his mouth slightly, he was about to answer her, when the plane hit another air pocket. So instead of what Lorelai thought would have been sweet words, he hissed, "Not again."

His discomfort grew again, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes. Lorelai brought her right hand to Luke's hand, which was clenching her left hand. She pulled his hand up to her mouth so she could kiss his knuckles, which were turning white. "It's alright, hon. We'll be back home soon."

Once back in Connecticut and in the familiar truck of Luke, Lorelai tried to keep him awake after the long journey back home. She did so by talking about everything and nothing. To other people, it would sound like rambling, but to her, it was some serious thoughts she was sharing with him. "I don't know what to do first. Shower? Watch TV? Sleep? Eat? Order food? Get Paul-Anka?"

Luke did not contribute anything to her thoughts, not telling her what to do or what he wanted to do, which prompted Lorelai to ask him what he would do first once they were home. His answer was vague. "I know exactly what I want to do."

"And that's?" She asked, hoping she would get some more explanation than that.

"You'll see." he said, not even looking at her, but concentrating on the road, his hands on the steering wheel.

All of Lorelai's attempts to make him expand on his answer failed. He was deflecting or giving even vaguer answers, which would not make sense to Lorelai. She would have to wait and see, and soon, sooner than she thought the Stars Hollow sign was there greeting her. First, they passed Luke's diner, which was her second home, then the gazebo, which was filled with all those memories of her relationship and then the old folks home with the to-sell-sign in front, which she hoped to buy soon. First thing tomorrow, she mused.

Then Luke pulled the truck up on the road, which was familiar and a first sign of being home without being in their actual home. The house was still standing, it looked the same, yet different, maybe they were different people now. She got off the truck and took a moment to take it all in. The house seemed friendlier than when they had left. When they left, seeing the house for the last time had left a sour taste, now it was the home of a bright future. She could not wait to get back in and start the rest of their life together, fully committed.

One hurdle had to be overcome before that though; the old truck, which Luke could not get rid of, had drawn attention, Babette had made her way outside, running towards them with such happiness, her arms widely stretched from her body and loud shrieks of greeting filling the air. She gave first Luke a hug because he was standing closer to the Dell's house and then she embraced Lorelai in a bone-crushing hug. The second Babette had let go of her, she started talking, telling her about her time with Paul-Anka, asking her about their trip, but not giving her time to answer, and giving her the latest update on the events in town.

Apparently, there had been an invasion of some gorillas, who had taken over the town for a night, leaving the city in a chaos. They had broken into several stores, even in Doose's market, which had left Taylor furious. His mind was set to find the troublemakers. Measures to prevent another incident like this happening in the future had been discussed already at the last town meeting.

It was a wild story Babette was presenting her, but Lorelai was sure her and Luke's past three weeks had been wilder. She excused herself from Babette, telling her she would get Paul-Anka in an hour after settling in at home again.

While she had talked to Babette, Luke had rushed with their backpacks to the house and was already sitting on the couch, turning his head, when she exhaled deeply as she stood in the living room again.

"Sit," Luke said, patting the space next to him on the couch.

"It's good to be home," Lorelai said after flopping down on the couch, on the side, she had long ago claimed as hers. She closed her eyes in content, and just was for a moment, not doing anything, just taking everything in.

She felt Luke reaching out for her knee. It was nothing unusual, he usually put his hand there, but this time around it didn't stop there. His hand reached for her left hand in her lap, and then she felt something cold on her finger. She opened her eyes and lifted her hand to inspect it. When she saw her old engagement ring sitting there, she gasped.

"This is what I wanted to do first thing we're back home. Not showering, not watching TV, not sleeping or eating, not ordering food or getting Paul-Anka. All that was on my mind was getting that ring on your finger as soon as possible. There's no way out of this, Lorelai, maybe in a body bag," he joked, but carried on more seriously; he had reached out for her hand again, fumbling with the ring on her finger. "I won't ever leave, and to make it very clear to you, I love you."

There it was the big love declaration slash proposal of Luke she had been waiting for. It was unbelievable. Not in a bad way, it was unbelievably beautiful and better than Lorelai could have ever imagined it herself. She believed every word he said, she knew he meant them. She could see it in his eyes, the way he looked at her with adoration, the way he held onto her hand, the way his shoulders were all tense, the way his jaw clenched because she still had to react to all of this.

She started off by flashing him a smile, the widest she had ever given anyone before, it hurt in the corners of her mouth, it felt like she would rip her face in two. She felt how her lips went wobbly, but she managed to return the love declaration before bringing her lips to his for the first kiss as an officially engaged couple.

All in all, Lorelai couldn't believe any of it. She was so damn lucky.

 **THE END**

* * *

 _This is it. The end of a wild story. I can't believe it. This is so unbelievable. It's over. Already. Finally. I'm still not sure which applies better. Unfortunately maybe?_

 _First things first, thank you to everyone, who encouraged me along the way. Everyone, who reviewed, especially to all the anon-reviews, which I couldn't reply to. Thanks to everyone, who favorited or followed, or read the story in the first place._

 _It was such an amazing experience for me. Writing the story, and then sharing it with you. I'm very glad it was so well received and I hope you liked this last chapter too. So, please let me know what you think. Anything is welcome. I'm really curious what your favorite part was or what inside joke you enjoyed the most. Both for the chapter or the story in general._

 _My fave line in the last chapter is for sure "It was a wild story Babette was presenting her, but Lorelai was sure her and Luke's past three weeks had been wilder." I had to reference the Life & Death Brigade taking over Stars Hollow. The revival didn't deal with it that way. Imagine Taylor finding all the money in his store; his face must have been priceless._

 _Anyway, I hope you noticed I tried to wrap this story up in a full circle, mirroring the first chapters and their events. It's what Gilmore Girls is apparently all about, so I had to do it as well. I very much like where Lorelai and Luke are in this, even though it's not that different from the revival, but I wanted them to talk, properly, and they did._

 _So, once again, thank you and I might see you soon for another one-shot or even longer story. You never know when the muse strikes. But this was definitely not the last piece of Gilmore Girls fiction you have read from me._

 _And one last thing, which I have to be honest with you all: Ever since I wrote this last chapter a little epilog has been floating around in my head. I'm not sure if I will ever write it since to me the story is finished. But I wanted to let you know that this journey might not be over yet for good. Cross your fingers, but in the meantime leave me a review, please._

 _For now, thank you for reading. I truly appreciate that you took this wild trip with me. It was such a pleasure._


End file.
